unforgettable

1994 was the year of Pulp Fiction. Oh sure, audiences also showed up in droves for Forrest Gump, The Lion King and a live-action version of The Flintstones. But within the burgeoning world on independent cinema, there was a new king of the mountain. Which was really piss poor timing for John Dahl’s The Last Seduction, a sexy, neo-noir thriller that got good reviews but was steamrolled by the Tarantino juggernaut.

Dahl certainly wasn’t reinventing cinema. In fact his next project, Unforgettable (1996), seemed to embrace the wham-bam, B-movie aesthetic studios used to crank out in the ‘50s starring second-tier actors caught up in lurid paperback-inspired plots. Only this time, the gimmick involves a bit of far-fetched pharmacological invention that transfers the memories of a suspected killer into the mind of the man framed for the same murder.

David Krane (Ray Liotta) is a whip-smart assistant medical examiner assigned to a multiple homicide convenience store shoot-out. At the scene, he spots a bit of evidence that connects the case with a much more personal one: the brutal murder of his wife, for which Krane himself barely escaped prosecution on a technicality. Convinced that the only way he’ll ever fully clear his name is to track down the killer himself, Krane injects a dangerous experimental drug which, combined with the spinal fluid of the recently deceased, transfers memories from one mind to another.

As the investigation continues, Krane pieces the story together by “shooting up” with memories from a trail of dead bodies – including his own wife. Meanwhile the inventor of the drug, Dr. Martha Gibbs (Linda Fiorentino), tags along in an advisory capacity, warning that the formula causes permanent heart damage and that, ironically, each injection brings Krane one step closer to the truth…and one step closer to death.

Unforgettable could have been a very grim, unpleasant affair. But Dahl seems to recognize the humor in his main character’s self-destructive quest. Krane’s sneaky desperation to recover each side of the story is a fun bit of inventive plotting, like a detective interrogating his suspects after they’re dead. And it allows for the film to believably withhold crucial bits of the conspiracy for a surprise who-dun-it ending (one that the audience had no way of figuring out on their own).

Too intense and edgy to ever be a conventional leading man, the casting of Ray Liotta is a bit of a lost opportunity as the film never questions Krane’s innocence in his wife’s death, which might have added whole new perspective to the mystery and an element of danger to Liotta’s character (something that’s definitely in his wheelhouse). All of which makes his relationship with Fiorentino – playing cute and ditzy here - nothing more than a forced romantic partnership.

As usual, the film drips with Dahl’s supersaturated colors and slick visuals. The director hasn’t helmed a feature since 2007, but has had a healthy second career working on TV shows like Homeland, Hannibal and Ray Donovan. While he may be nothing more than a footnote in the mid-‘90s indie scene, Unforgettable shows Dahl has an undeniable enthusiasm for material that other director’s would dismiss with extreme prejudice.

The Kino Lorber Studio Classics line has been one of the most prolific over the past year. And they show some extra love here, backing up a very nice HD transfer with several unexpected special features, including vintage Making Of interviews, 20-minutes of raw behind-the-scene B-roll footage and the original theatrical trailer.