What is the plot? Nolan was in a fatal car accident, where his wife Rachel died. It has been six months since the accident and Nolan was able to survive after spending three days in a coma, but he has severe amnesia. He doesn't remember anything about his life. Now he must fight to recover all of his memories, especially to be a good father to his little daughter Ava. He has constant nightmares and decides to enter into cognitive therapy with Dr. Brooks. Strange memories will return, making Nolan doubt who he really is, his past and what he has done.

Faced with the lack of new film releases, I have had to search for material on streaming platforms that offer at least one product of a certain quality. This has been a difficult task in recent months. Before watching Black Box, I tried two films, one of them a horror film with an interesting poster, but I had to stop after half an hour. The story and the performances were so mediocre that I didn't want to finish watching them.

I almost gave up and fell asleep, but I read the synopsis of this movie, and since it has elements of science fiction, the third time was the charm, I could see it in its entirety and I can give an opinion of the movie.

Black Box has a good general idea, with an excellent beginning, where we are presented with Nolan's conflict, trying to recover all the memories of his life. He watches the videos when his daughter was a newborn baby, the happy face he had, proud to be a father. Look at the photos of his wedding, with his wife, on vacation. They seemed to have a perfect life, they loved each other.

But at the same time he is tormented by the visions, someone, or something, seems to want to hurt him. Nolan is suffering, he can't remember anything from his past, he doesn't feel the same love for his daughter. It seems that he is not the same.

This first part of the film is interesting and we, the audience, are discovering the truth at the same time as the main character. When he decides to undergo the treatment of the insistent Dr. Brooks, everything indicates that this man is hiding something. There are things from his past that were not good, it seems that he was not an ideal man.

There is a mixture of science fiction with typical scenes of a horror movie, with small disturbing scenes, but when you reach the point of the surprise turn of the story, everything becomes more conventional and predictable. The energy with which the film began is lost when we discover what goes on in Nolan's mind and who he really is.

In addition, there is the dramatic and sentimental subplot of the film, represented by Nolan's daughter. Little Eve, who takes care of her father, and always tries to bring back the memories of her past life, to be as normal as possible. The girl's character is very mature, only six months have passed since her mother's death and she seems to have overcome it very well. This point makes me feel uncomfortable, a child of that age having that kind of loss, the trauma would be tremendous.

My general opinion is that it looks like an episode of the Black Mirror series, I think it fits perfectly into that universe. The script is signed by three people: Wade Allain-Marcus, Stephen Herman, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour. Too many people for a story that ends up being simpler. They were able to take other paths, to create a more complex story. But they didn't.

We could summarize it as the obsession of a mad scientist, who doesn't overcome the loss of a loved one and breaks the ethical rules of science to get back the person he loves. Only he didn't have that same love, he can play against it and the father-daughter relationship can be stronger.

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Filmmaker Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour directs his most important project, the Houston-born filmmaker is a descendant of immigrants from Ghana. There is a soccer player who has the same name. This work deserves our attention, it is not a perfect film, but the filmmaker manages to get us into the story, he knows how to use camera effects that serve to solve the problems of a small budget. We definitely have to follow up and keep an eye on his next films. I perceive something special in this director, I hope that luck and destiny will take him on the right path within the industry.

The cast of the film is formed by Mamoudou Athie who plays Nolan, the man who has lost his memory and who has an inner struggle, within his mind, to recover the memories. The actor is not very famous, although he has participated in several productions and is the main protagonist of the film. He is accompanied by Phylicia Rashad as Dr. Brooks, the woman obsessed with her brain experiment, who assures that she will be able to recover Nolan. The actress has a lot of experience in cinema and television, one of her last appearances has been in the movie series Creed, the spin off of the Rocky saga. The children's actress Amanda Christine plays Ava and Donald Watkins plays Thomas, a very important character in the surprise spin of the story.

Trailer

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