LE PATIENT/ THE LOST PATIENT

France, 2022, 89 minutes, Colour.

Txomon Verges, Clotilde Hesme, Rebecca Williams, Audrey Dano, Stephane Rideau, Matthieu Lucci, Alex Lawther.

Directed by Christophe Charrier.

The French title is simply The Patient. And the focus is on the patient, a 19-year-old young man awaking from coma, amnesia, and a psychologist trying to get him to remember and come to terms with his past.

Thomas, the patient, is played by Txomon Verges, vulnerable, searching – but with scenes showing his aggression. The psychologist, Anna, is sympathetic, herself using a walking stick and having a limp. There are also the physiotherapists at the hospital who work with Thomas and there is a young man with whom he becomes friends, also a patient, working with the physiotherapists – but the relationship becoming threatening.

This is a film of flashbacks as Thomas begins to recover his memory, focusing on his parents, focusing on his sister Laura and the strong relationship between them, and his observing Laura in her own personal behaviour.

Ultimately, and the audience may well have been thinking this from the middle of the film, it is revealed that Thomas has killed his family, that his sister died long before he was born, that he is the hooded menacing character, and that he had wounded himself.

1. The title? The French focusing only on the patient, the English introducing the theme of “lost”?
2. The French settings, the hospital, therapy, psychological care? The flashbacks, Thomas and his childhood flashbacks? The flashbacks to his sister, Laura, his relationship with her, her relationship with the woman, the bond? The flashbacks to the killing, the parents, the cousin, Thomas and his wound?
3. Thomas waking in hospital, his age, 19, amnesia? The flashbacks? His behaviour in the hospital, the interactions with Anna, the memories, the discoveries? The physio sessions? The encounter with the young man, also a patient? The moodiness?
4. The character of the psychologist, her limp, walking stick? Her presence? The questions, probing? The interaction with the physiotherapist, their differing opinions?
5. The flashbacks, Thomas and his parents, the older sister, the social scenes, the mother, her relationships, the more passive father? The cousin and his coming to stay? Reasons? The flashback to the photo album, his sister, then his absence from the album?
6. The episode with the young men in the hospital, his injuries, the friendship with Thomas, the dangers, the threats, his being removed?
7. The hooded figure, sinister, Thomas being urged to identify the hooded figure?
8. The satisfactory revelations, the twists? Thomas being the hooded figure? Laura dead before he was born, figure of his imagination, compensation, the episode of the television and the singing of the song by the actress playing Laura? Thomas and his motivations, killing his parents, killing his cousin, stabbing himself??
9. Audiences enjoying this kind of gradual unravelling of a case, twists