Shattered (1991) San Francisco Neo Noir

 

"A Good Amnesia Neo"

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen (the phenomenally claustrophobic Das Boot, also In The Line of Fire, The Perfect Storm).

Written by Wolfgang Petersen and based on Richard Neely' novel "The Plastic Nightmare." The Cinematography was by László Kovács (A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon) and the Music was by Alan Silvestri. 

The film stars Tom Berenger (Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Someone to Watch Over Me, Platoon) as Dan Merrick, Greta Scacchi (The Player) as Judith Merrick, Bob Hoskins (The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, The Cotton Club, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) as Gus Klein, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer (Kill Me Again) as Jenny Scott, Corbin Bernsen as Jeb Scott, Scott Getlin as Jack Stanton, Judi Maddison as Mary Wilson, Bert Rosario as Rudy Costa, Jedda Jones as Sadie, Debi A. Monahan as Nancy Mercer, Kellye Nakahara as Lydia, Dierk Torsek as Dr. Benton, Theodore Bikel (Darker Than Amber) as Dr. Berkus. 

Tom Berenger as Dan Merrick

Greta Scacchi as Judith Merrick

Corbin Bernsen as Jeb Scott

Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as Jenny Scott

Story.

Night. We are driving along a fogy winding road that is notched into a rocky mountainside. As we negotiate the cuts, the fills, and the curves the credits roll. 

We hear an approaching vehicle.

We cut to a shot looking up at a curving stone barrier wall. We hear the car engine racing, and then suddenly see the car hit and go through the wall. It sails out over a talus slope, and smack grill first into the rocks below. 

It starts rolling, and through all this we get intercut shots of the vehicles passengers, one is thrown clear near the top, the other gets tossed about like clothes in a dryer riding the crash all the way out. 

The car. ends up resting wheels up. A quick cut to the interior shows a bloodied hand dropping into the frame.

Cut to Judith Merrick in a hospital bed. Her face is puffed and scratched. Dr. Berkus comes into the room and is checking her pulse. He also tells her that her husband Dan is in critical condition. Judith's reaction is a combo of startle and anxiety. She asks to see him.

He also tells her that her husband Dan is in critical condition. Judith's reaction is a combo of startle and anxiety. She asks to see him.

Who?

When Judith sees Dan, his face looks like raw hamburger, puffed, abraded, cut. Judith says "Hi honey, it's me Judith" Dan looks out out of one eye and says "Who?"

We cut to Dr. Berkus and Judith walking down a hallway. He's explaining to Judith that Dan is suffering from psychogenic amnesia, caused by the accident. He doesn't know who he is. He tells her that it may last a year or longer. 

We cut to an operating room. A team of doctors and nurses surrounded by photos of Dan, some with grease pencil markings and measurements. 

Dan is getting reconstructive surgery on his face. The operations are followed by Judith working on Dan's physical therapy then a more intimate time with Judith who is showing him pictures of their past, their friends, etc., etc., in hopes of, we assume, of triggering his memory.

Here is where we are introduced to Jenny and Jeb Scott. His business partner and his wife in Merrick-Scott Development.

Dan is learning quick and can put names to faces and his recovery is progressing. One evening Judith plays "Nights In White Satin" by the Moody Blues, reminds Dan about the time they spent down in Mexico and where in a cantina they were offered money to stop playing it. They dance, and she reminds him about having sex on the beach afterward, and of course this leads to a little sex in the hospital. 

 

A wave curls blend into a love making sequence...

They drive back along winding cliff side roads to their mansion and Dan is surprised by it's opulence. However Dan has a reaction when he sees his reflection which sends him into a flashback to the night of the accident. 

It's a recurring flashback throughout the film of bits and pieces of the past, smashing glass, and a face peppered with shards. When Judith runs into the room he wandered into she finds him smashing the mirror with his walking cane.

She tells him that the doctor warned her he may have issues, he replies that there is something about this room that set him off. 

Judith continues to rehabilitate Dan back into their world. They visit the wreck of their car at the bottom of a talus slope. Dan can't believe he survived it. When he asks Judith where she got throw out she replies up near the top. 

Back at the mansion, Judith and Dan are both laying naked in bed. Judith gets a phone call and Dan is trying to grope and tickle her while she is talking. She pushed him away playfully, he turns on his side and spots a pic of him holding a pipe. 

This makes Dan curious enough to get out of bed and head to his den.  We cut to Dan sitting at his desk in his den packing the bowl of a pipe he saw in the photo, out of a wooden humidor.

While digging in the tobacco, things start to go Noirsville when he discovers a plastic film canister buried at its bottom.

Opening it produces a roll of prints. Grabbing a magnifying glass Dan discovers photos of two lovers having sex. As his view runs along the roll he first notices one of the naked bodies is Judith. He's at first flummoxed that he'd have pictures of himself and Judith, until he sees that her partner isn't him. 

This sends him into another flashback of Judith and him making love which segues into what looks like a canted rusty iron wall with a painted scale, which is displaced by scenes of a party, back to a lovemaking session, and then ends with a view of a ceiling fan. Dan looks a bit perplexed.

Judith eventually finds him in the den. As she opens to door further Dan slips the roll of prints into a desk draw. Judith informs him from the doorway that Jenny and Jeb invited them over. Seeing the look on his face, she asks him if everything is all right he replies that he's fine and will be glad to go.

At Jenny and Jack's, when Jack and Dan are alone, Dan asks Jack if his marriage was on the rocks. Jack tries to deflect but eventually tells Dan that he and Judith were having a scream fest the night of the accident. Later, during a walk on the beach with Jenny, Dan explains to her that he needs to hear the truth. 

Later, during a walk on the beach with Jenny, Dan explains to her that he needs to hear the truth. 

He relates to Jenny that Jed told him that he was a shit to Judith.  Jenny is taken aback, replying along the lines of, you were a shit to her? 

She levels with Dan about Mexico and of them meeting Jack Stanton, who claimed to be an architect, who they met in Cabo. Jenny confesses to Dan that they all smelled a rat except Judith. Jenny even invited this Jack back to San Francisco. Jenny continues telling Dan that she even saw them both together at the Hacienda up in Reyes, the day before the accident. Dan finds it hard to believe. Jenny gets serious reminding Dan to think about it, Judith didn't even sprain her ankle in the accident. 

Dan starts to do a little investigating. He drives up to the Hacienda, bribes one of the managers and finds out more about Jack Stanton.

Dan returns to the Merrick & Scott offices in the pyramid shaped Trans-America building. 

Jeb shows him the model of the last project he was working converting an old ship salvage company dock into a fancy marina that also has high rise office space. 

Jeb brings him to his old office and introduces his secretary, he doesn't remember either. Dan sits at his desk see a personal calendar and starts flipping backwards through the back pages. He spots a the name Klein circled in red with a phone number. 

He picks up the phone and calls. Its a pet shop. He automatically thinks it's unimportant until he asks his secretary about it and she shows him a bill from Klein for $7,000. 

Dan heads down to the pet shop with the bill. The shop is just about to close. He tells the shop assistant he needs to talk with Kline about a bill. She lets him in.

When he meets Kline he's having an argument with a woman who is complaining that the parrot she bought doesn't talk.

Dan follows  Kline back into his office, Dan explains that he had a bad accident and has no memory since New Years Eve, he then sarcastically asks showing Kline the bill, "what did I buy a gorilla?" 

When Kline looks at the bill he realizes he is speaking to Mr. Merrick. 

It starts going more Noirsville when Kline points to his license and tells Dan the he's actually a private detective and that, he hired Kline to surveil his wife. The pet shop is his side business. 

Kline opens up a file draw and pulls out Merrick's file. He opens it and we see photos and stakeout notes gathered on the assignment. 

He goes on to tell Dan that he obviously confirmed his suspicions about Judith, and identifying Jack Stanton as the culprit screwing his wife at the Hacienda. 

It goes really goes Noirsville when Klein tells him that his wife came in and paid the bill the day after the accident.

Noirsville

This is a decent looking noir with a good twist that somehow got lost in the flurry of Neo Noir that came out between 1990 and 1994. All the performances of Berenger, Scacchi, Whalley, and Bernsen are spot on with Bob Hoskins playing a humorous private detective an  8/10.