Unconscious (2006)

85% of critics liked it
(26 reviews)
82% of users liked it
(679 ratings)

One man's identity makes for a difficult mystery to solve in this independent comedy drama from director Bradley Wigor. After a life-threatening accident, a man lies unconscious in a hospital bed, while police and doctors try to find out who he is. The mystery man's profile has been compared to a… More One man's identity makes for a difficult mystery to solve in this independent comedy drama from director Bradley Wigor. After a life-threatening accident, a man lies unconscious in a hospital bed, while police and doctors try to find out who he is. The mystery man's profile has been compared to a number of people recently reported missing and sought by the police. Things take a complicated turn when the injured man's particulars match up in different ways with six different men, leading to a number of people being eager to determine who he really is. Featuring Adam LeFevre, John Speredakos, Peter Friedman, and Jessica Almasy, Unconscious received its world premiere at the 2006 Palm Beach International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 34 min.
Directed By: Bradley Wigor
Written By: George Williams, Joaquin Oristrell, Teresa de Pelegri, Dominic Harari
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy

In Theaters: Nov 24, 2006 Wide
On DVD: May 5, 2009
Studio: Regent Releasing

Critic Reviews

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
The film is sustained effortlessly by the charismatic Watling and Tosar, who are among Spain's most popular movie stars.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
The comedy is too broad, lacking the subtlety that the film's high-brow intentions require.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
The Freudian farce Unconscious is paced so breathlessly that it keeps you panting to keep up with each new plot twist.
Gene Seymour, Newsday
Are the Spanish the only ones these days able to make movie comedies that are smart, sexy, wacky and graceful all at once?
Jennifer Drapkin, Village Voice
The movie's message is clear: Freud's greatest contribution to society was not the idea that all little boys long to sleep with their mothers -- rather, it's the concept of the unconscious, a hidden place where our secret desires yearn to be free.
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
[Director Joaquin] Oristrell's comedic sense only seems to succeed in spurts, and he often burdens the proceedings with a theatrical and contrived air that undermines the humor.
Kam Williams, EURWeb
Tackling an array of rather risque subjects in a disarmingly sweet fashion, ranging from cross-dressing to sado-masochism to incest, Unconscious explores everything you always wanted to know about sex, and more.
Josh Bell, Las Vegas Weekly
Oristrell stages funny, madcap scenes around bondage, cross-dressing and incest.
John Patterson, L.A. Weekly
Laboring in the wide shadow of Almodóvar and lacking much in the way of visual distinction, Unconscious compensates with its cast's full-tilt commitment to rip-snorting farce.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
[Billy] Wilder would have loved this razor-timed, feather-light comedy set in sexually repressed 1913 Spain.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Oristrell is a modern day Woody Allen, although with a better sense of rhythm and naughty buffoonery. You'll laugh from corners of your subconscious you didn't know you had.
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette
When it is good it is very, very good, and when it's not it's mediocre.
Kam Williams, Black Star News
Everything you always wanted to know about sex, and then some. A bawdy, early Woody Allen-esque slapstick comedy!
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Film is ultimately unsure of what it wants to say about modernity, psychoanalysis and all it liberates.
Katey Rich, Film Journal International
Even with nothing more redeeming than a lot of good one-liners, Unconscious has a charm that your ego, superego and id can all enjoy.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
The film is so opulently and noisily aestheticized it gives the illusion of being smarter than it is, though it benefits from some endearing performances.
Ted Murphy, Murphy's Movie Reviews
one of the most visually stunning and original movies to come along in a while.
Timothy Knight, Reel.com
Spanish writer/director Joaquin Oristell brings 2006 to a mostly delightful close with Unconscious, a clever and sweetly risqué period farce brimming with frothy charm and tongue-in-cheek wit.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "Unconscious", it is 1913 when Alma(Leonor Watling), extremely pregnant, fears her husband, a psychologist, is missing or worse and goes to her brother-in-law, Salvador(Luis Tosar), also a psychologist, for help. But he has problems of his own,… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "Unconscious", it is 1913 when Alma(Leonor Watling), extremely pregnant, fears her husband, a psychologist, is missing or worse and goes to her brother-in-law, Salvador(Luis Tosar), also a psychologist, for help. But he has problems of his own, namely his wife, Olivia(Nuria Prims), is perpetually jealous of her sister, he is passed over for a promotion and, to put it gently, he is incapable of pleasing his wife. Alma discovers a thesis that her husband had written about four hysterical women, and feels that this is the key to finding him, especially after he leaves instructions for it to be destroyed.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Unconscious" is an amusing psychological mystery that is set at the the dawn of the modern age when psychoanalysis was becoming introduced to help people, the corset being fazed out, and World War I bringing an end to some of the outdated oligarchies of Europe. Alma is herself a modern, liberated woman rushing into man's world and has read everything from Marx to Bronte. All of which are signs of the beginnings of a free society where an open mind is required.[/font]