Care to Remember?

This past weekend, I watched a documentary entitled Unknown White Male. I had heard about this film some time ago from a blog I read, and the premise intrigued me. Thirty-something man wakes up one morning on the New York subway, not visible injuries or trauma, and has no idea where he is or who he is. His episodic memory is completely gone, meaning he cannot remember any events from his life. Through a series of situations, he contacts someone who does know him, he is Doug, a British photographer, former stock broker. The film is his journey to reunite with people from his "other" life and sort through what he did and did not like about his old life.

As I watched film reel and heard stories about Doug's old life, I gathered that he and his group of friends were wealthy people with money to burn and fun to be had. Climbing mountains in Bolivia, summering on the Mediterranean, expecting and getting things when and how they wanted them. They were arrogant and did not care about the consequences. So, given this background, one would expect Doug to talk about how beautiful life is and great it is to get a chance to experience things all over again (fireworks, chocolate mousse, love, snow, etc.).

But Doug does not display a sense of loss over his memory. He comments that he is not sure he wants his memory back, and sees no real need to figure out what happened to make it go away. Sure he cannot remember growing up, his mother (who died), or all those little moments that grow a person, but he does not seem to mind.

So, the film is not looking at the loss Doug experienced, it must be focusing on the rebirth. Right? Wrong again. Doug goes to school to better his photography, there is some quip about how his portraits reflect loss, but to me it looked like a bunch of head shots of people staring, bored. Doug has a new girlfriend, but he gave all appearances that he was just along for the ride of the relationship. Although, when he talked about her, it was one of the few times we saw Doug happy and smiling.

Here is another issue brought up in some of the amazon.com reviews. It is quite possible this documentary is a fake. Filmmaker friends got together and thought how they could make a film that is different and would appeal to people by its synopsis. There is no way to prove this to be an actual event or not other than by talking with those in the project or friends of Doug. However, if it was a fabrication, what was the message the film was trying to send?