The Lost Patient Review: Netflix’s Wonderful Movie That Reached the Climax Perfectly Without Unnecessary Scenes
Cast: Txomin Vergez, Rebecca Williams, Clotilde Hesme, Audrey Dana
Director: Christophe Charrier
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Netflix released a new gripping psychological thriller The Lost Patient on November 25, 2022. The Lost Patient is directed by the Toulouse director Christophe Charrier. The film was written by the director himself based on the comic of the same name The Lost Patient by Timothé Le Boucher, a real bestseller. The original comic has been translated into various languages and is considered one of the best comic thrillers in Europe.
Several thrillers start from the premise of a witness who, despite having witnessed a terrible murder, remembers nothing of what happened and will have to face a painful process of reconstructing his memory to find the culprit. This, as we will see in our review of The Lost Patient, is not the only already seen cue in the French film by Christophe Charrier, available on Netflix; even the narrative ploy that underlies the final turning point has been used over and over again in the cinema (although here we will avoid the examples compared, so as not to reveal anything to you!). That said, The Lost Patient stages a plot that is intriguing in his way, even if he often struggles to find the right rhythm and to build the necessary tension to properly capture and involve the viewer.
The Lost Patient Review: Plot Summary
Thomas wakes up after three years in a coma: someone broke into his house and killed his family, leaving him seriously injured. With the help of a psychiatrist, he will have to dig into his memories to find out what happened. On a stormy night, a mysterious individual comes out of a villa in the French province. The next day some children playing football enter the garden of the house, and from the windows, they discover that something terrible has happened: all the members of the Grimaud family have been shot dead, except the young Thomas (Txomin Vergez) who, although seriously injured, he is still breathing.
The Lost Patient Ending Explained
Three years later, the boy wakes up in hospital after a coma that left him with atrophied muscles and an extremely confused memory: Thomas does not remember anything that happened that night, neither the identity of the murderer nor what happened to him. his sister Laura (Rebecca Williams), who according to what her psychiatrist tells her is still missing. It will be the woman’s job to help him dig into her mind, retracing the events preceding the terrible event to reveal what happened. From his fragmented memories, we discover how Thomas was at the center of unhealthy family dynamics, something in the past of him and his family that was buried by pain and mourning has influenced the present and relationships. Why, then, does Mother Betty seem to despise Laura so fiercely, what did the girl do to attract so much hate? Thomas’ journey in search of the truth will prove fraught with painful secrets, which perhaps the boy wishes would never come back to the surface.
The Lost Patient Review and Analysis
As we anticipated, The Lost Patient is based on several premises that are rather abused in cinema (both the initial one and, above all, the final one). For this reason, the film, although intriguing in its way, fails to involve the viewer, who ends up immediately expecting where the whole story will end up. Is there a worse sin for a thriller that makes twists and turns its greatest attraction? Even the pace, then, is far too staid to build the tension that a story of this type deserves.
The Lost Patient Ending Explained
However, we can only dwell on the cast and direction, capable of reviving the fortunes of the film: on the one hand Txomin Vergez in the main role is quite convincing in his transformation from an unwitting victim to that an active part in a painful and upsetting fact; on the other, some choices made upstream to represent the unconscious of the protagonist that transships into reality are striking. The memories that mix more and more with the present, leading the viewer towards the final revelation, are represented in an immediate and captivating way, striking for the narrative precision and simplicity with which real and imaginary overlap in the staging.
The Lost Patient Review: The Last Words
The Lost Patient is not a particularly memorable film, it will soon get lost in the vastness of the Netflix catalog (which is full of much more interesting thriller titles), but in any case, it can be a good diversion from the sugary Christmas atmosphere of the period to spend a winter evening. Christophe Charrier’s film is based on intriguing but rather overused premises in cinema, which is why it never completely involves and strikes. Certain cast choices are interesting, and the interpretation of the protagonist is convincing.
