There are many fine films out there where the sanity of the main character was brought into question (SECRET WINDOW, Johnny Depp, for one), leaving the audience to wonder what was real and what wasn't. All that I wondered as I watched this film is when it would end.

While Colin Firth gave a fine performance, the story was muddled and confusing. I didn't care who was dead, who was alive, or who killed whom. I watched until the end, hoping I would receive some kind of payoff, as the film would just HAVE to redeem itself by penetrating through the miasma of confusion enough to give the viewer something, but I found nothing. This was a huge disappointment in every way.

TRAUMA is one of those films that invokes mixed responses from audiences depending on their expectations: it seems to polarize people into love/hate categories. While not a great movie, TRAUMA has the courage to pose a storyline that is more involved with the interior aspects of a mind altered by physical events. We are asked to observe the world through the eyes of a battered brain which happens to belong to a man with a tattered past. If linear stories are preferred then this is not a film to recommend. For those viewers willing to crawl inside the malfunctioning mind, this film is mesmerizing and full of rewarding moments.

Ben (Colin Firth) is seen in the opening flashbacks driving a car at night with his wife Elisa (Naomie Harris). There is a car crash and Ben awakens from a coma in a hospital, convinced that Elisa is dead. He wanders the hospital, drawn to the morgue where the caretaker (Cornelius Booth) enhances the mystery of the place. Ben learns from the TV room that a famous singer Lauren Parris (Alison David), for whom Elisa has been a dancer, has been murdered. His mind disintegrates and everything that follows is a mélange of delusion mixed with bits of reality that exquisitely define how the post traumatic stress syndrome can be driven to psychosis if not recognized and treated.

Ben leaves the hospital (or does he?) and continues his art career in a vast building undergoing reconstruction (a building that has been a hospital....), befriended by his mate Roland (Sean Harris) and by his landlady 'Charlotte' (Mena Suvari). More flashbacks (mostly childhood memories) occur as Ben talks things out with a 'psychiatrist' (whose face we never see...) and during episodes with channeler Petra (Brenda Fricker) he is informed that Elisa is not dead. Ben becomes a suspect in the murder of Lauren Parris and his chasing after evidence ultimately leads to a series of disasters, a series of metaphors and delusions, all of which find Ben sitting back in the hospital where he started.

Did any of this story really happen, or was it the fabrication of a mind traumatized to the brink of breaking? That is left for the viewer to decide. Though plagued with some static moments and a lot of conversation buried in background music and sounds, Director Marc Evans with writer Richard Smith take us on a suspenseful journey, made all the more bizarre by some extraordinary camera work and tremendously inventive settings. Not a movie for everyone, but for those willing to enter the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome mind, this case study is rewarding. Grady Harp

Make THIS film! Seriously, this film shows how to make a truly scary film without the special effects budget of some other horror films. 1) Hire great acting talent. 2) See #1

This movie had no cheap thrills, no special effects pizazz, and no hokey acting talent with great one-liners. I've never given Colin Firth his due. He is hands down, a really great actor and he should do more films like this, where he's not the nice guy. (Maybe he has, already, but thanks to this film, I'm going to check now).

This plot didn't need anything extra to weigh it down. And it was very nicely acted out.

Mena Suvari is so adorable in this role. She really seems too good to be true. I've always liked her in any movie and this is no exception. But she seems to work well with Colin and I believe they should do another movie together.

If you're looking for ghosts or demons. Things that jump out and make you scream. Or hokey one-liners and teenagers engaging in sexual acts while be watched, stalked, and then hacked by a knife-wielding maniac. Look elsewhere... far from this film. If you want to see horrors of the psyche and a genuine mental thriller, 'Trauma' is a very great choice.