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Year 2000 saw the suspense thriller MEMENTO starring Guy Pearce, wherein the uniqueness of the script resides in the fact that the plot unfolds from the end and proceeds backwards. FOLLOWING has somewhat of that same flavor, though not so engagingly or cleverly done.
In this film, Jeremy Theobald plays Bill, a young Londoner addicted to following people - not with any malicious intent, but just out of curiosity. After a period of initial confusion for which the viewer might be excused, it becomes apparent that scenes from three timelines are being depicted. There's the present, in which Bill is telling an interviewer (lawyer, psychologist, police official ?) the genesis of his current situation, beginning with his practice of following strangers. There's the relatively distant past, in which Bill is confronted by one of his quarry, Cobb (Alex Haw), a sartorially elegant house burglar, who befriends Bill and includes him on his capers. Finally, the relatively recent past, in which Bill is dating The Blond (Lucy Russell), one of the pair's victims that isn't what she appears to be. The first clue I had that three timelines were running intermixed was Bill's facial appearance: scruffily bearded and unkemptly dressed, well dressed and clean shaven, and the latter plus a bruised face.
The plot twist, when it finally comes, is sufficiently unexpected to raise an eyebrow. However, unlike Pearce's Leonard in MEMENTO, the characters are all so universally unattractive that it was hard to care when the patsy among them took the fall. Also, the director's decision to photograph in black and white added nothing as far as I was concerned; color would have sufficed. Blessedly, the run time is only 70 minutes. Perhaps they were on a shoestring budget.
My advice - rent MEMENTO instead.
