In a more just world, Joshua Martson would be a name that makes movie fans as excited as any other cinephile approved filmmaker. Breaking out with “Maria Full Of Grace,” the filmmaker hasn’t made a lot of features, but I bet you didn’t even realize his tremendously underrated 2011 film “The Forgiveness Of Blood” is on The Criterion Collection. It’s taken five years (which he has largely spent working in TV) for Marston to deliver his next film, “Complete Unknown,” but it’ll be one I’m paying close attention to.
Starring Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon, the layered narrative about identity and memory follows a woman who continually reinvents herself until one evening she crosses paths with an ex-boyfriend, which changes everything. Here’s the official synopsis:
A mysterious woman with a remarkable past revisits a former lover, complicating the settled life he has built for himself and his wife, in Complete Unknown, an unsettling exploration of identity from acclaimed filmmaker Joshua Marston. As Tom celebrates his birthday with a group of close friends in Brooklyn, he is startled to see a woman from his distant past at the party. Jenny—or Alice, as she now calls herself—first denies even knowing Tom, but as the evening progresses, she reveals a shocking secret. After disappearing from Tom’s life 20 years earlier, she began to reinvent herself every few years, taking on a new name, a new career and a new life each time. After giving Tom a glimpse of what life could be like if he lets go of the safety and security he has so carefully created, Alice asks him to make a choice that will change everything.
“Complete Unknown” opens on August 26th.
