We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew

It was easier to keep going if we had somewhere to go!

Year Released : 2016

Director : Thomas Woodrow

Cast : Aaron Stanford, Louisa Krause and Doug Jones

I seem to have gotten back into the habit of writing a film review every day again. This could simply because I have gotten back in the groove, or that is was that it was confirmed a few days ago that I am not allowed to return to work until mid-January, but either way I’m getting more time to watch films. I’m not sure how long this will last for but it is certainly nice to fill my increasingly tedious forced time off from work like this.

So we now move onto a post-apocalyptic type film. I used to love these types of films, but now find them a bit tedious as they all feel a bit pretentious in terms of delivery. This one looks a tad bit different though and is going with the “Swiss Army Man” approach of having one of the central characters being a seemingly motionless and mute person, albeit this one doesn’t fart or get an erection to tell you where you need to go. That’s a sentence I never thought I would have to write.

Let’s hope this proves to be a rare case of being a decent post-apocalyptic movie.

Plot

A man (Stanford) and woman (Krause) are surviving day to day in a post-apocalyptic environment, but they have no memory of life before wherever caused it, although the man claims otherwise. One day the woman injures herself and they end up at a mysterious building that neither recognises. They decide to settle there due to it having food, water and health supplies, but the woman is angry at the man for wasting her life when he reveals he never knew where they were from.

Soon after the man goes exploring and finds another man (Jones – referred to as Man 2 for ease during the rest of the review) albeit one that doesn’t react or talk. As time goes on some unusual events start occurring the man things it is Man 2 that is causing it.

The woman on the other hand finds the newcomer fascinating.

So is this a rare surprise from this genre, or is it par for the course?

I’m not going to lie, the only reason I watched this movie was because I saw Aaron Stanford was in it and I was quite entertained by his portrayal of Pyro in the X-Men franchise, but if this movie has taught me one thing it is that if I am to watch a film based purely on one person being in it, I should see a wider variety of their films first.

Now I realise that may sound like I am saying Stanford isn’t good in this because he is. He and Krause both put in decent and believable performances, but the problem is that the plot is so mundane that it is hard to get engaged with what is happening. I found myself clock watching throughout the film and that is never a good thing.

The delivery of the story of the film is so lifeless and uncaptivating that by the time the movie came to a well overdue ending, I was not even remotely concerned by the characters or what was happening to them. I couldn’t care less.

In a genre seemingly devoid of new and interesting ideas, this adds precisely nothing.

Summary

Lifeless and dull, this film with an unnecessarily long and complicated name never fails to deliver on any aspect and by the time it ended, I had already checked how long was left to go at least six or seven times. I’m normally patient when it comes to films like this, but there has to be something to justify putting your time in……and I didn’t get that with this.

The acting is fine, but that is about the biggest positive that I can offer about a movie that doesn’t really offer anything new to any genre at all.

Avoid.