The "neo-noir" film Shattered (1991) was directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who elicited a mumble-mouth performance by Tom Berenger and an incoherent one from Greta Scacchi. It's another in the endless parade of amnesia movies. In this variant, the central character, Dan Merrick, goes over the cliff in his Mercedes and emerges not only disfigured but, it seems, without the least knowledge of his own person or past. The film clearly demonstrates that movie amnesia can be just as flexible as a tricky plot demands. Amnesia in Shattered has nothing to do with the real human brain and its gesture to the facts of existence is mighty perfunctory.
DOCTOR (authoritative, bearded): "We call it psychogenic amnesia. Patient doesn't know his name, his family, his personal history. Everything else he remembers. The year, who's president. He can drive a car, he can function professionally, but anything personal is out of reach."
And now the gimmick (major spoiler coming up, so if you plan to see the movie [which I cannot recommend], please avert your innocent eyes). Not only does Dan Merrick not remember anything of his pre-accident past, he's not even Dan Merrick! He's Judth Merrick's lover, Jack Stanton, transformed by plastic surgery into a simulacrum of Dan. And he doesn't have the least clue that he's someone else.
There's a exceedingly complicated plot which involves voluntary and involuntary impersonations, a private investigator out of Cliche Central, two murders and three car crashes. The incredible upshot is that the villain (the temptress-wife) is killed and that Jack permanently assumes the role of Dan.
Jack's amnesia is cured in the last scene, but not before it has been mysteriously promulgated among his friends, acquaintances, and business associates, all of whom are utterly deceived by the plastic surgery and seem not to notice that there have also been changes to his voice, his walk, his manner, and his personality. These poor folks suffer from a devastating manifestation of Hollywoodish forgetfulness. It could be called "contact amnesia." An absurd idea, but not more absurd than the plot of Shattered.
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