(1999, b/w) "Everybody has a box" of keepsakes, items of little worth other than sentimental value. A young man in his 20s, between jobs, having an interest in writing, Bill (Jeremy Theobald) gives his account to an older man (John Nolan) of how things went wrong after he began shadowing people, while bored and lonely but ostensibly to gather material for characters to be used in a story. His following people, wanting answers to the thousands of questions raised after picking someone out from a crowd at random, became irresistible; but then he broke his rule of not pursuing the same person twice.

What a tangled web he weaves, writer/director/cameraman Christopher Nolan in this 70-minute, tautly dramatic, neo-noir film, the germ for the genesis of Memento and The Dark Knight.

Trailing another young man in a suit and tie, carrying a large valise, about his age and size, into a restaurant, Bill, scruffy with long hair and light beard and leather jacket, seated a few tables away is surprised when his quarry comes over and asks: "Who are you and why are you following me?" Cobb (Alex Haw) takes Bill into his confidence, showing him how to burglarize people's flats - not for the money, for the adrenaline rush.

A lot more can be learned about strangers from where they live and what they possess (handle things with Latex gloves), especially from their music collections and treasure troves. Besides, "interrupting someone's life" is what most people desire because by your taking something away, you "show them what they had." On their first burglary together (Cobb says he has scoped out the location well in advance), the woman renting the flat returns unexpectedly with a man (not her live-in boyfriend).

In a club Daniel Lloyd, a young man in a suit and tie with a short haircut, offers to buy a blonde woman (Lucy Russell) a drink; she tells him he can buy her a drink but can't sleep with her. She points out her boyfriend, the owner of the club, a bald guy seated with a couple of other men, whom she refers to as being "dangerous," involved with girls, drugs, and pornography. After slapping him, she rendezvous with Daniel at his apartment, telling him that her rooms had recently been burgled. "How did it feel?" he asks. "Great," she replies.

On the telephone calling Cobb, Daniel has a nasty black eye. In the woman's apartment, while she changes in another room, Daniel without evidence of injury looks inside her piano bench for something. Some scenes are out of chronological order.

Bill and Cobb break in to her flat, rifle through her underwear, steal panties, books, camera, and CDs; Cobb hides one of her pearl earrings inside the piano bench. The blonde describes to Daniel how the bald guy came to her flat with an associate and another fellow who owed money: while the associate held down the debtor, the creditor mashed all fingers with a hammer and then the man's skull.

His eye bruised, Daniel at night inside the club opens the owner's safe, removes numerous bundles of pound notes, and begins (having forgot to bring along a bag) taping the money to his body. Getting caught up in the voyeurism, Bill develops a taste for violating people's privacy; but unlike Cobb, smooth and cool, confident of not getting caught (attention to clues), Bill freaks when the woman from the first burglary sees them in a restaurant. Get a haircut and change attire, Cobb suggests.

The blonde explains she's being blackmailed for some photos. Cobb and Bill get into a fight: "You're on your own now." She asks: "Did you have to beat him?" He replies: "Did you have to sleep with him?" An old lady has been brutally beaten to death. A decoy will sow doubt into the police investigation. "Your lies won't stand up to the truth," Bill says to the blonde. A pearl earring shows up inside a box of items taken from a woman's apartment. At the conclusion, entangled in an abandoned web, a victim squirms.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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