The feel of this film rings of a late 1970's early 1980's action-drama TV show, like "Hart to Hart", "Charlie's Angels", or even "Dallas", particularly because of the location shots and the music. The scenes alternate between million-dollar mansions, ritzy hotels, billion-dollar corporations, and rural locales. And the lush strings always emerge when the characters are driving through some mountainous areas. I kept thinking that Jaclyn Smith would turn up at any moment.
The opening premise is quite a stretch: Tom Berenger as Dan Merrick survives after having plunged about 6000 feet off the road in his car. It's a miracle that his legs didn't end up in the glove compartment. Despite being more or less still intact, Merrick's face has been crushed into hamburger, and he can't remember who he is or what happened to him after he awakens from a coma. His wife Judith (Greta Scacchi) is only a little scratched up after the ordeal. She nurses him back to health and tries to help put the puzzle pieces back into his "shattered" memory.
He finds out he's a rich commercial real estate developer with a house with its own zip code. His office at the TransAmerica building in San Francisco is bigger than the average person's apartment. And he has a beautiful secretary who must have just finished a stint as a cover model for Vogue. And his colleague is the kind of guy who uses the old "two shooter" gesture while saying "We'll do lunch." That would be a nightmare!
But other pieces do not come together so easily, like why, before the accident, did he hire a private investigator (Bob Hoskins) who fronts as a pet store owner? And why did this guy's invoice end up at the development company? At one point, he thought he had bought $7000 worth of pets! (With that kind of money he could have gotten the equivalent of Magnum PI.)
The film becomes a kind of noir mystery in which Merrick tries to put the pieces of his life back into perspective all the while trying to figure who he can trust. Although some of the writing and circumstances were a little hard to swallow, the movie sort of gets better as it goes along. And a great performance by Berenger holds the story together more or less. At every moment, despite its short-comings, you want to find out what happens next. And a dynamite ending that is worth the wait and the price of admission, $5 for the DVD at Fry's.
