REMAINDER

UK, 2015, 97 minutes, Colour.
Tom Sturridge, Cush Jumbo, Ed Speleers, Nicholas Farrell.
Directed by Omar Fast.

Remainder is a small-budget film, a British- German coproduction, with locations both in London and in Berlin.

Tom is young man, emerging from a building, looking as if he is going to hale a taxi when suddenly there is a convulsion, glass falling in from a roof and hitting people, and a large piece of masonry falling and knocking Tom unconscious. He is taken to hospital where he stays for quite a long time but eventually recuperates and is released. He is played by Tom Sturridge.

In the meantime, a very smart lawyer played by Nicholas Farrell with his assistant, Greg, a friend of Tom, are planning a large damages case when news comes that Tom has regained consciousness. The compensation issue is taken up towards the end of the film but the screenplay moves in a different direction.

Tom has the remainder of his life but he has forgotten some key elements in his past. He makes contact with Greg, with Greg’s wife, with a number of criminals who were involved in a robbery. With them, he attempts to recreate situations that would jog his memory, a visit by the woman to Oxford which is played over and over again, she forgetting some of the key lines, Tom urging her on. With the criminals, they play a reconstruction of the robbery in which Tom participated. He also sees images of an old woman who seems to speak to him as well as an image of a child.

This put pressure on Tom who does want to regain his life, some fascination for the money, millions of pounds, and with the lawyer, but that is not his main goal.

The film then is a psychological drama and the attempt to reconstruct events in a person’s life to overcome partial amnesia.

1. A British- German co-production, locations both in London and in Berlin?

2. The city, the building and the glass falling in, hospital, flat, telephone booths, lawyers’ offices, clubs? The world of? Musical score?

3. The title, the remainder of Tom’s life, trying to reconstruct it?

4. The opening, Tom, the crowd, Catherine behind him, the suitcase, his trying to get a taxi, the glass falling in, his return to the case, crushed? The crowds gathering? The ambulance?

5. The time in hospital, in coma, surgery, rehabilitation? Being allowed to leave? Coming home, his crutches?

6. The lawyer, the discussions with Greg, Tom coming awake, the change in the situation? The phone calls, cut-off? The later visited in the signing of the paper? 8/2 million pounds compensation ash and why the half? The restrictions on speaking about the issue publicly?

7. The phone box, Christopher, the toughs, the gang men?

8. The club, meeting Greg, in the toilet, for an hour, the memories?

9. The attempted reconstruction? What he could remember? The old lady walking by, the child? The discussions with Catherine, going
to Oxford, over and over again with the lines, and getting them wrong? Her exasperation? The robbery, the criminals, the guns, the re-enactments?

10. Tom and his life, vague before the accident, coma and recovery, the possibility of the re-enactments jogging his memory? His future?