The Analysis of 《Before I Go to Sleep》

【Abstract】：《Before I Go to Sleep》， a mystery thriller， was released in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2014. Since its first release， it has received mixed reviews from critics. This paper intends to analyze the movie’s defect and charm from the perspective of narratology. As a thriller， the suspense and tension are the desired effects. Good narrative skills are of great importance. Based on the narrative order， the author mainly analyzes the defect of the movie in this respect. And from the perspective of focalization， we analyze the charm which internal focalization brings in this movie.

【Key Words】： Narratology， Narrative Order， Internal Focalization

Introduction

《Before I Go to Sleep》 is a 2014 British-American-French-Swedish mystery thriller film written and directed by Rowan Joffé. A film adaptation of S. J. Watson's 2011 novel of the same name and the film stars Nicole Kidman， Mark Strong， Colin Firth. It was shot in London at Twickenham Studios and was released in the United Kingdom on 5 September 2014. Here are two interesting contrastive comments about the movie on Rotten Tomatoes， a website launched in 1998 devoted to film reviews and news：

“Sleep is 91 minutes of delightfully twisted tension and three minutes of eye-rolling treacle. Kidman and Firth are both excellent in their sadness and savagery， and Joffe builds tension far better than most of the horror movies available at your local Cineplex this Halloween weekend. If only he had quit while he was ahead.”

“Alas， worse and worse as the movie goes further down the rabbit hole， demanding more of our attention even as it does less to deserve it. This is all mediocre enough but then， toward the last 20 minutes or so， the film loses its mind entirely， cooking up an \"explanation\" that's so ludicrously farfetched it doesn't just turn logic on its head…It's shallow， it's silly， it's pat.”

We can see that the film is met with mixed reviews from critics. In this paper， the author intends to analyze two aspects in this movie， which are relative to certain elements of narration. The first aspect shows the defect of the movie while the second one accounts for the charm of it.

The Arrangement of Narrative Order

As we all know that “story” and “plot” are two distinctive concepts. According to David Bordwell and Kristin Thomas， “Plot is all the events that are directly presented to us， including their causual relations， chronological relations， duration， frequency， and spatial locations. Story is all the events we see and hear， plus all those that we infer or assume to have occurred， arranged in their assumed causal relations， chronological order， duration， frequency， and spatial location”. In a simple way， story is what really happened in our real life and plot is the way by which the director rearranges or retells the story.

Since the plots of a movie can be arranged according to the director’s favor and intention to achieve some particular artistic or emotional effect， the order of the narrative is of great importance. Narrative order is the relation between the sequencing of events in the story and their arrangement in the narrative. A narrator may choose to present the events in the order they occurred， that is chronologically， or he can recount them out of order.

The plots in the movie are presented in the non-chronological order， so before we have a look at the rearranged plots， it’s necessary for us to recover the story in chronological order. The following reorganization of the original story may be quite long， but to retell the story is not the author’s aim it’s just in this way could we analyze whether the director’s rearrangement of the plots is a good choice.

Christine， played by Nicole Kidman， married to her husband， Ben， in her twenties after a couple of years graduated from King’s College. Then they had a baby Adam. The three of them could have lived a happy life， but things got tough. Then Christine met someone else， called Mike. One day， on their date at a hotel near an airport， Mike tried to persuade her to leave with him away from her families. Christine refused him without a second thought. They had an argument and it irritated Mike. He hit Christine and Christine tried to leave the hotel but was stopped by Mike. He attacked Christine violently and Christine got faint. Mike left her body naked with plastic cover in an industrial park nearby. After the police and her families and friends found her， she came back to life again but had a bad amnesia. She had problem remembering things and could store up information for only one day. Her memory stopped at her twenties.

Christine woke up every morning thinking she’s still in her 20s without knowing who she was， and not mention her husband and son. Her husband Ben sent her to the care center. Every time he and their son Adam went to see her， Christine could hug her son at first， but the next second she would sense who he was. One day， Christine grabbed Adam and tried to run away from Ben. This scared little Adam. Ben struggled a lot and finally decided to divorce Christine and left her in the care center and not to visit her. He thought in this way could both Christine and their son live a happy life. After their divorce， if the plan worked well， Christine would spend the rest of her life in the care center. However， a dramatic shift happened. Mike came back and found Christine. He got her out of the care center under the name of her husband Ben.

In the following days， Christine lived with this man Mike， who pretended to be her husband Ben. The woman spent the last 14 years of her life waking up with a blank slate. Now she was forty. Every day Mike guided her along with a series of photos and Post-It notes with which Mike tried to reconstruct a disguised version of her life. Once she attracted the assistance of a curious neurologist Dr. Nasch （Mark Strong）， and the neurologist gave her a treatment secretly since her fake husband disapproved with the excuse to protect her. Every day， after Ben left for work， Dr. Nasch called Christine and directed her to a video camera she’s keeping hidden where she’s recorded the facts， fears and questions that have arisen on previous days. Dr. Nasch was also filling in some of the blank spots from Christine’s past. Soon， she discovered she never had an accident； she was left bloody and beaten near in an industrial park. She found out she had a friend named Claire （Anne-Marie Duff）， and a son named Adam. Christine began to piece together details from her life that Ben has been hiding from her. On the other side， Ben always had plausible explanations for why he hadn’t told her these things. Christine chose to believe what this Ben said and thought that he sacrificed a lot to protect her.

One night， Christine told this Ben about the secret treatment and confessed her gratitude and apology， also said that she would love him， Ben. However， just after she said， “I love you， Ben”， Mike got extremely angry and slapped her in the face. Christine had no idea why Ben became angry. Mike got out of the house. Christine called her friend Claire and through her depiction， Claire told her that the man wasn’t her husband Ben. Claire would like to come and help， but Christine didn’t know the address. After a while， Mike came back and secretly covered Christine’s mouth and made her fainted. The next day， of course， Christine woke up without last night’s memory. As usual， after Mike left for work， Doctor Nasch called to tell her to look for the camera. However， the last video Christine shoot was about her faith to love her husband. She didn’t have the time to watch the other videos and Mike called her to pack up for their anniversary. In the evening， Mike picked her up to go to the hotel where they once dated. At there， Mike told her everything and also Christine remembered that he was the one who attacked her. She tried to run away and the old same scene played once again. But this time， Christine stroke down Mike and succeeded in running off. At last， she and her families got reunited.

This is the whole story about Christine through the logical rearrangement of the plots. As a thriller， it has to adjust the order in which the plots are to be presented to the audience to make intense suspense. The director has to decide from where the story starts in the movie and how the plots get presented. However， the author finds that the narrative order in this movie fails to maintain the intense suspense or in other words， to some extent， it weakens the tension of the story.

The narrative time in the movie starts from the next morning after Christine got slapped and found out the man was not her husband from her friend Claire. Christine had no idea who she was， and the fake Ben explained to her that she had an accident and lost her memory. Also， he told her it’s their anniversary and he would take her somewhere after work. After he left， Doctor Nasch called and told her that they had a secret treatment. At this moment， the plots flash back to two weeks ago， which explains how Doctor Nasch met Christine and started the treatment， and how their treatment performed and during the progress， how they found every past detail of her life， including it’s not the accident but an attack which rendered her amnesic， the fact that she and Ben had a boy， the existence of her close friend Claire， the fact that Ben had divorced her four years ago， and the biggest secret that the man who lived with her was not Ben. All these parts are narrated in the form of the flashback and it’s not until Christine woke up the next morning after she found out the man was not Ben that the narration once again comes to the first beginning in the movie. Then in the following plots， Mike took her to the hotel and revealed the truth. Christine Stroke him down and run away. That’s the narrative order of the movie. We find that actually during the process of watching this movie， the most thrilling part is the instance when Claire tells Christine that the man is not her husband. And at that time the man comes back. However， the narrative order puts this plot in the form of a flashback and makes dangerous moment far away from the audience and reduces the tension. Just after the revelation， the story comes back to a peaceful morning. Such an arrangement leaves the audience such kind of impression that a balloon get bigger and bigger， just when it’s about to explode， it gets deflated. So from this perspective， the author finds the narrative order is the weakness of this movie.

The Selection of Focalization

Focalization is another essential element in the narration and the selection of it is a decisive factor for movie’s success. “Focalization” is a term first given by Gérard Genette， a French narratologist， which means the “the point of view” or “perspective” or “vision”. In the Dictionary of Narratory， focalization refers to the “perpetual or conceptual” position by which the narrated situations and events are presented. That is to say， focalization means “ through whose eye the story is presented”.

Genette grouped focalization into three types， which are zero focalization， internal focalization， and external focalization. When the position of how the events and the situation are presented in the story varies and is sometimes unlocatable， the narrative is said to have zero focalization. When the narrator is composed of a by-stander and puts his vision within a limited scope， or the narration is only restricted to the character’s external behaviors and appearances according to the narrator’s words and actions but not thoughts or feelings， the narrative is said to have external focalization. When “focalization is locatable in one character or another” and the story is presented through what one character or another sees， feels and acts， internal focalization is said to be obtained. According to Genette， this type of focalization is divided into three types. The first type is called fixed internal focalization which means the focalization is located in only one character. The second type is variable internal focalization when focalization is located in different characters. The last one is multiple internal focalization， which means there are different focalizers who observe and tell the same event from different angles.

It’s not hard to find that the movie adopts the fixed internal focalization. In this narration， focalization is locatable in Christine， which means the story is presented through what Christine sees， feels and acts. We can not only observe Christine’s external behaviors， appearances but also her feelings and thoughts. Her horrible dream and occasionally appeared fragments of memory prove the application of the fixed internal focalization. The application of different focalization in the thriller is not fixed. More often， the external focalization produces more suspense. However in this movie， the fixed internal focalization is the best choice. It depends on the specific feature of the story—amnesia which is a useful device， especially in a thriller， as it puts the audience and the brain-damaged protagonist on equal footing when it comes to unwinding the plot and discovering the twists. The amnesic protagonist knows no more than the audience. Due to the particular condition， the protagonist Christine wakes up each day to a life story being narrated by two men she can’t quite trust. The audience stands at her point to feel the same confusion and horror. We don’t know who is telling the truth， Dr. Nasch or the so-called Ben. We make every judgment with the protagonist as the layers of the secret peeled away one after another. If it’s not the internal focalization， we wouldn’t feel the same scariness when we find Dr. Nasch’s chest card written “Mike” as we observe through Christine’s eyes. Likewise， if it’s not the internal focalization， we wouldn’t feel the same horror and tension when we find the so-called Ben is actually Mike as we listen through Christine’s ears. In this way， the author thinks one of the charms of this movie lies in the selection of its focalization.

Conclusion

The film’s amnesia conceit has been used before in such varied movies as \"Memento，\" \"Clean Slate，\" \"50 First Dates\" and \"The Bourne Identity\"， if not compared with the former similar movies， it’s still a handsomely made， often intriguingly twisty thriller. However， based on the old-fashioned skill and also the defect of the narrative order， the movie fails to tell us such an interesting story in the interesting way. On one hand， the author thinks that the over complex arrangement of the plots hinders the audience’ watching experience， and it wastes too much of the audience’s attention to decode the story. Of course， on the other hand， we can’t deny its good aspect--the inner focalization elevates the tension level and succeeds to grab the audience’s emotion. If we only focus on the theme， excluding the techniques used in story- telling， it’s not bad， at least， since it makes an intense meditation on marriage and fidelity.

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