User Reviews

SHATTERED is a solid enough psychological thriller from the early 1990s, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who adds in a few watery and shipwreck scenes for effect (only natural from the guy who brought us DAS BOOT). Greta Scacchi turns up in another femme fatale role after PRESUMED INNOCENT while Tom Berenger is the main star, playing a guy who survives a car wreck only to suffer amnesia as a result. My main disappointment lies with the simplicity of the story; I'd seen this kind of thing before so I guessed the final twist right away and then it was just a case of waiting to be proved right. The film's stylistics have dated somewhat but Bob Hoskins is a winner in support and it's worth one watch at the very least.

The very good first hour hooked me into watching the whole movie, something I doubt I would do a second time.

That first hour was interesting and led to a very suspenseful but totally implausible ending. There were just too many holes in the theory that a man suffering from amnesia could be surgically made to look exactly like the man he killed. Then, he also would actually believe that he was that person!

Huh? Yeah, I know. It sounds goofy, and it is pretty hard to swallow. Anyway, the leads are interesting with Tom Berenger as "Dan Merrick," Greta Scacchi showing off her form as "Judith Merrick," and Bob Hoskins is the likable private detective "Gus Klein." Actually, Berenger was not fun to hear speak in the last 35 minutes, using the Lord's name in vain 11 times in that short stretch.

"Shattered" is an old-school psychological thriller in which an intricate puzzle is cleverly created concerning a man who's been seriously injured in a car crash. As the story progresses, numerous clues to the puzzle are provided but it's always unclear which ones are reliable and which are intentionally misleading. Similarly, the natures of the various characters who provide these clues are also uncertain.

Dan Merrick (Tom Berenger) and his wife Judith (Greta Scacchi) are driving home from a New Year's Eve party when their car suddenly leaves the road and plunges down a steep embankment. Judith is thrown clear and only incurs superficial injuries. Dan, on the other hand, is trapped in the wreckage and subsequently spends a considerable amount of time in a coma before undergoing extensive plastic surgery on his disfigured face.

As a consequence of the accident, Dan suffers from selective amnesia and flashbacks in which he sees shattered glass, huge waves and a gun. He's also unable to remember any information about his personal life and during his recuperation; Judith dedicates herself to his care and tries to help him by sharing recollections about their life together and showing him photographs.

Dan's a wealthy property developer and is surprised when his business partner Jeb Scott (Corbin Bernsen) mentions that before the accident, Dan and Judith's marriage was on the rocks. Jeb's wife Jenny (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) tells him that he and she were lovers and he also discovers photographs of Judith in bed with another man.

Dan finds a receipt for a payment he'd previously made to a pet shop and on visiting the premises discovers that the proprietor, Gus Klein (Bob Hoskins) is also a part-time private detective who he'd paid to follow Judith. Klein had discovered that she was having an affair with a man called Jack Stanton (Scott Getlin) and so when Dan hears that Judith has received a telephone call from Stanton, and decides to follow her, the events that follow ultimately lead to a shocking discovery.

"Shattered" is a stylish movie in which deception, murder and treachery feature strongly and numerous unexpected plot developments keep the action intriguing and tense. The fact that the audience discovers the clues at the same time as Dan creates a great deal of empathy for his predicament and a clear understanding of the confusion and frustration that he experiences.

This movie is graced by consistently solid performances but Tom Berenger and Bob Hoskins stand out. Berenger does well in conveying his character's confusion and helplessness and Hoskins is a powerful and entertaining presence in every scene in which he appears.

Of course I won't use any spoilers by giving away the ending of this movie. All you need to know about judging this flick happens at the very beginning. (An aside: can imdb.com ban commentators if they give away the BEGINNING of "Memento"?)

A car crashes through a railing and starts falling down a cliff face. A real tall cliff face. Cut inside the tumbling car. A man grunts and groans after each carom like he was Homer Simpson. Another cut: a woman is also falling down the cliff, presumably having been thrown from the car, grunting and groaning!

Next scene is the hospital. The man, husband Dan Merrick (Tom Berenger), looks like ground chuck, and suffers from the rare and convenient Deus ex Machina amnesia. The woman, wife Judith Merrick (Greta Scacchi), barely mussed a hair on her pretty little head.

My friends, the way the crash was presented there was no way anyone was going to survive it or even come out in three pieces. Yet their surviving conditions are the legs on which the rest of the plot twists, turns and circumambulates. I lost it right there. This soap is infested with cliches. I got a good unintentional chuckle from the hotel scene where Dan bribes the manager. It's the kind of scene "Police Squad!" spoofed many times.

Berenger twitches his way in the role of the husband. While Scacchi performs some major heaving of breasts.

Pass.

I watched this on a snowy Friday afternoon. It was on AMC at a time when I wouldn't have been watching, except for the combination of bad weather at the end of a really busy week where I'd have knocked-off a little early anyway.

Missed this movie completely when issued, and never encountered it since. I've always liked Berenger and Scacchi, and would have been sure to see it if I'd heard of it. Apparently, from low box office figures, it didn't stay around long in early release.

However, I don't share the enthusiasm for this flick that a number of others here do. I agree with Ebert's view, from another site, that it was "inconceivably implausible." These kinds of "noir" stories usually stretch credibility at some point, but not to the unending extent this one did. I was interrupted a couple of times, so I don't know whether I missed some point as to whether the lead was a true doppelganger for the corpse found towards the end, or whether some sort of reconstructive surgery had been covered or implied in one of the brief parts I missed ---- but it really wouldn't matter anyway.

Corbin Bernsen had so little to do (thought he might be a red herring in the beginning), and I guess Berenger needed a partner so it wouldn't look like his business had lapsed during his recovery.

The ending, which for me was more corny than shocking, was a little too pat. I suppose there had to be another accident to "resolve" things, but why do these situations always have people driving like a bat-out-of-hell on slick, two-lane, curvy roadways, at the edge of cliffs with guardrails which seem to be made of balsa wood?

But my greatest complaint is that the two leads - neither of whose normal acting styles could be termed "animated" in their previous efforts - looked like they might be on an excess of downers throughout the filming. Berenger often has played the "aw shucks" good guy, and even roles where he's beaten the hell out of every bad guy in sight, with a lower-key, understated style. Usually it's effective, but for me it wasn't here.

This movie reminds me of a 1970's Columbo TV movie. It was on cable one late night and I "taped" it to watch later. The beginning premise is intriguing about a man who has selective amnesia after a terrible car accident. But you start getting suspicious right away because his wife didn't even strain her ankle in this accident in which their car crashed thru a rock wall and plummeted down a very steep hill, bouncing and crashing over and over again. There's some suspicion added about his wife committing adultery, and maybe even himself. Then's there's Bob Hoskins as a quirky pet shop owner and private eye who Merrick had apparently hired just before the car accident, though he can't remember that. But stupidity starts to rear it's ugly head as one scenes has Merrick (Tom Berrenger) and his wife visit the crash site/demolished car they were driving.....the car was still crashed upside down on a hill by their SF home. Apparently the police don't get involved in near fatal car accidents in San Francisco.They just leave the car where it came to rest. Yeh sure. Spoiler alert: Now the ending sequence of events of this movie would have you believe that Merrick wasn't really in the car, because Mr. Merrick had already been shot to death by his wife, but that it was Merrick's wife's lover; Jack Stanton in the car; and that the surgeons unknowingly reconstructed Stanton's face so that he looked exactly like Merrick's face. Yeh sure; that's believable. Guess the two of them had identical blood types, dental records, height, body shapes, color of eyes, speech, color and type of hair, not to mention things like DNA. Yeh, this would have been a movie for Detective Columbo, but nothing more.