Rent: "Unknown White Male"

Just watched a fascinating documentary called Unknown White Male about a 37 year old man who found himself on the subway in New York one day and had no idea who he was. He was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops and carried no identification. His only connection to the real world was a phone number on a scrap of paper tucked in a book in his backpack.

Doug Bruce suffered a retrograde amnesia that erased every single memory. He could sign his signature, but didn't know his name. He could speak English (with a British accent) but didn't know his hometown, or who the Queen was. He could swim but he had never seen the ocean.

The documentary follows this grown man as he begins to live his life as if for the first time. There is footage of his first snow and fireworks. He falls in love - in his mind the first and only love he's ever known. He discovers Mexican food and sushi and a hamburger. He sees a baby for the first time and is mesmerized by his tiny little hand. It is beautiful in many parts and there were lots of insightful comments about the nature of memory and personality and how we become who we are. How much of you would be left if you couldn't remember a single thing about yourself? if all your memories disappeared?

It was sad too in a way, that he seems a lot of the time to be holding up a facade for his friends and family. Long after he seems to have made peace with the idea of starting a new life they are still trying to fit him back into the old friend they knew. He tries, mainly for their sakes, but he seems awkward meeting his oldest friends for the first time - one of whom makes a joke in the pub about cricket and he asks "is that a drink or some kind of insect?"

Very enjoyable film with lots of food for thought on science, philosophy and psychology, anchored by an interesting situation and compelling subject...