Synopsis
Tom’s birthday dinner party is turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of Alice, an old flame who changed her identity and vanished without a trace 15 years prior.
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Cast
- Rachel WeiszAlice Manning
- Michael ShannonTom Brayton
- Kathy BatesNina
- Danny GloverRoger
- Michael ChernusClyde Goodwin Jr.
- Azita GhanizadaRamina Brayton
- Christopher LowellBrad Brayton
- Dola RashadSharon
- Tessa AlbertsonTilda
- Omar MetwallyFarshad
Recommendations
- 70
Screen Daily
Refreshingly, there is no clichéd love story or illicit thriller that emerges; Marston is pursuing ideas that are far more personal and philosophical, about the masquerade of identity and what it means to that identity when you make a significant change in your life. - 70
Variety
Luxuriously conversational in structure, it would make an outstanding stage play, and the two stars play it with chamber-piece rigor. - 67
Consequence
Something’s missing in Complete Unknown, and it’s a spiritual issue. The problem is that for this situation, the unlikely reunion, a natural approach restricts any and all sensationalism, which is why the ending neither bruises nor squeezes — it just lingers. - 67
The Playlist
Marston and Sheppard have come up with a terrific premise, and have worked it into an often highly entertaining movie. But after a while, all the narrative ellipses and question marks start to feel like an affectation — beguiling on the surface, but un-genuine. - 67
The A.V. Club
It’s as if a first-rate Roman Polanski movie suddenly metamorphosed (ohhh, frogs, duh) into a third-rate Michael Crichton adaptation. - 63
Slant Magazine
Underneath the impersonal formal beauty and good acting is a familiar moral about self-imposed limitations. - 60
The Guardian
Unfortunately, with the big reveal having arrived in the first act, the film isn’t much more than an elongated debate that leaves you thinking: so what? - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
The movie's structure is peculiar, laying out a mystery and solving it early on, then spending half the film making us wonder how satisfying that solution was.
