Novo

Co-writer and director Jean-Pierre Limosin does a sublime job of disorienting viewers with sudden edits to bring them psychologically in line with his main character—a handsome thirtysomething office clerk suffering from short-term memory loss. But unlike the similarly amnesia-driven Memento, this French-Spanish import is not a gritty, dangerous mystery, but an emotional thriller in which Graham (Eduardo Noriega, Open Your Eyes) attracts several beautiful women whom he doesn't remember from day to day: among them, one taking advantage of his condition for sex without consequences, one Florence Nightingale-type who becomes his guardian angel, and one heartbroken that he doesn't remember their past together. Novo doesn't spell out anything for the audience—viewers figure out what's happening to Graham at the same time he does—but just when the movie should be emerging from its fog, it instead becomes even more convoluted. Multiple viewings may help clarify the last act, but the fact that it becomes more fractured toward the end makes no sense in the context of the progressing narrative. A strong optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)