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Return to previous page TRAUMA Myriad Pictures Credits:  Directed by Marc Evans Writing credits  Richard Smith  Producers: Jonathan Cavendish, Nicky Kentish Barnes Director of photography:  John Mathieson Production designer: Crispian Sallis Editor: Mags Arnold Costume designer: Ffion Elinor Makeup/hair designer: Pamela Haddock Companies details
	Cast:  Ben: Colin Firth Charlotte: Mena Suvari Elisa: Naomie Harris Tommy: Tommy Flanagan Roland: Sean Harris Petra: Brenda Fricker Running time -- 93 minutes No MPAA rating  Cast details

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Region 1 dvd  14 June 2005	Region 2 dvd  21 February 2005

“TRAUMA” is a psychological chiller about Love, Grief and Madness. Awaking from a coma to discover his wife has been killed in a car accident, Ben's (Colin Firth) world mayas well have come to an end. A few weeks later, Ben is out of the hospital and, attempting to rebuild his life, he moves home and is befriended by Charlotte (Mena Suvari), his beautiful, young neighbour. But all is not what it seems and, haunted but visions of his dead wife, Ben starts to lose his grip on reality...

Directed by Marc Evans, from an original script by Richard Smith, the film stars Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’s Diary) and Mena Suvari (American Beauty).

TRAUMA explores what happens when a bereaved man, unable to make sense of his new reality, retreats into a delusional world where he can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is not.  In following Ben’s story, the film deals too with many common themes – grief, loneliness, and denial against a backdrop of the current social obsession with celebrity.

More detailed plot description (spoiler alert) including Sight and Sound review of Trauma. So please don't read this section if you want to keep the plot a surprise.

The only British film with a world premiere at Sundance is Trauma, the Welsh director Marc Evans’s first film since his claustrophobic horror debut My Little Eye. It’s also the scriptwriting debut of a 25-year-old Scot, Richard Smith. Colin Firth sheds his usual safe cocoon to play Ben, a man wrestling with mental illness in a distinctly unfriendly vision of London. 

Trauma is a mind game of a movie. It’s troubling, intense and puzzling, all of which are bolstered by the visual sense of Evans and his cinematographer John Mathieson, who allow Ben’s fragility to seep into the very core of the film through oppressive camerawork. Dave Calhoun The Times

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Trauma has more in common with Krzysztof Kieslowski’s metaphysical Three Colours: Blue, about a young woman unhinged by the accidental death of her husband and daughter, than it does a conventional chiller. There are creepy moments, for sure, and a culminating death unpleasant enough to register with fans of the macabre – particularly those who suffer from arachnophobia. But the slow-burning mood of ominous portent counts for more here than any storytelling shock and awe. Trauma trades in fear, not fright.

Marketing this story, which will be released in the UK through Warner Bros, will require ingenuity. Its likeliest audience appeal lies somewhere in the space between Firth’s legion of female groupies and that narrower, predominantly male vein of puzzle addicts who loved being teased by films like Memento. Their common ground might be represented by Don’t Look Now, a seminal film that
was steamy enough to be a date movie, but also artful enough to keep the most ardent suspense fans guessing. In the case of Trauma, the question is whether there is enough emotional involvement or cryptic mystery to tempt either constituency into seeing Trauma at theatres, rather than waiting to see it at home. 

Those that do pay at the box office will at least be rewarded by a UK film whose visual and aural virtuosity sets it apart from the television-influenced social-realist dramas and comedies that have come to typify this country’s output. Dressed in neo-gothic garb, this is a more mythical take on contemporary London than we are used to. ScreenDaily.com 02.2.2004

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Marc is not shy of the generic aspects of Trauma and his main inspirations come frorn Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors: Red, White and Blue, Nic Roeg's Don't Look Now and Roman Polanski's Repulsion and The Tenant. That gives you a rough idea of the twisted psychological zone we're in. Trauma's horror is organic and even scarier than usual because it's based around the door to the subconscious mind that should be shut but has suddenly become slightly ajar with terrifying ramifications." Film Review (UK) Sept 2003

 

NEW BEHIND-THE-SCENES FOOTAGE  Clever publicity gimmick.Good for Colin to refuse to discuss this footage when he was asked about it at the EIFF. The photo illustrates what how the name of the email addressee is edited onto the arm. Another gem from our 'During the making of...' series this time from british psychological thriller Trauma. We can't explain this and it totally spooked the cast and crew. Colin Firth shows you behind-the-scenes filming - weirdest thing is the forum at the end. Mena Suvari (from American Beauty) offers a suprise explanation although Colin Firth now refuses to talk about it.

The credits on the region 2 DVD have two unusual cast listings: The first is Featured Ants (in order of Appear"ants") which is a list of sixty of so names all beginning with A - there's even an "Angel". This is swifty followed by another small list of Stunt Ants.

Firth was easy to get on board and a pleasure for Evans to work with. "Colin was quite anxious to shed the Darcy role, and shirt, so he was up for it. "What actor does not want to be in every scene of a film?" But Firth was never meant to be in the film - it was written for a younger man. However, Evans immediately thought of him when he read the script. "I worked with Colin on Ruth Rendell's Master of the Moor and I have always known he has a dark side. "We sort of became friends and he was bemoaning the fact that people do not do the 'man in a suit' film anymore. "So when I read the script I thought of him, as he was looking for the darker material. "He said yes straight away." The Western Mail 17.1.2004

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Andrew Stephenson is an animal wrangler, who hunts down exotic and often grisly creatures for film crews. His latest project is in the Isle of Man on the set of Trauma, where he has the unique job of spraying the former Mr D'Arcy and the American Beauty actress with ants. 

"Colin Firth had to have about 50 ants on his arms, chest and legs for around two hours while they filmed. He was amazingly stoical about it, especially as the ants kept running off him, so we had to keep rounding them up and putting them back." 

Andrew used special sprays to make sure they didn't run up her nose or into her ears, and she remained remarkably calm. "I explained to all the actors beforehand that the ants would not harm them and that I could round them up at any time," 

But for now, Andrew has to head back to the Isle of Man to solve Colin Firth's problem of ants in his 

pants. Daily Record 20/5/03 by Cath Bennett

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excerpt from BBC interview with Mena Suvari;

Trauma is quite a harrowing film to watch. Was it a similarly intense experience making it?

Well my character is really separated from what Ben [Colin Firth] is going through. Charlotte is who she
is, and a healer of sorts, so that's the mindset that I had, and that's how we played it. And Colin, I just
can't speak enough of him, because he's so wonderful, experienced, talented and down to earth. He's also
very charming and funny and not in any way affected by the business, so it was a wonderful experience
working with him. Also, before this, I'd never worked with anyone who was so eager to give you insight -
telling me what he thought, and asking me if that was OK, and what I wanted to do. You know, you don't
always get that. And Marc is also really good with actors.

Charlotte has to eat a spider in the film - did you pull a Nicolas Cage and eat it for real?

I'd love to say that I did, but I didn't! It was a real spider though, and it did touch my lips a few times in
that scene - you can tell - but it wasn't put in my mouth. I definitely wasn't down with that. I mean, I did
consider it, but in the end I just couldn't. The girl who did it had a mouth-guard to protect her, and I must
say the spider was very professional [laughs], but it's just that at a moment's notice the thing could bite
you. For me the thought of that was just... eugh! Not appealing.

You also had rather a lot of ants to contend with...

My God, those ants... Those ants were all in my hair. That really was me. I was drenched in bottles of
blood and these ants were all over the place and biting me, which wasn't very nice - obviously. The thing
is, when they feel threatened they release a form of acid, so I was like, "Stop! They're hurting me! They're
hurting me!" and when they started to go in my eyes I just said, "Cut!" I couldn't handle that. I was
covered in dead ants and blood afterwards and I had to take a shower in my trailer, which I must say, I've
never done before [laughs] - because they're just so tiny and the water is always freezing! But even back
at my hotel, late at night, I was finding dead ants in my hair.

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FESTIVAL AND AWARD HIGHLIGHTS:

Premiere at the Sundance Fim Festival 2004 

UK Premiere at the Edinburgh Int'l Film Fest 8/20/2004

 

Celebrity stalkers and over-enthusiasts might want to hang around the lounge of the Sheraton where both Christian Slater and Colin Firth are getting 5 star treatments. Onlookers appeared stunned today at the appearance of Firth as he posed for the cameras in the late afternoon sun, promoting his new movie Trauma, which premiered at the UGC this evening.  Slater is the lead in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at this year’s Fringe, but bumped into Firth in the Sheraton lobby, scoring himself an invite to the cinema later in the day. Firth seemingly still has the sex appeal he’s so famous for, managing to attract some screamers at the red carpet: “I love you Colin!”; “Look at me Colin, give us a wave!”; “Aaaaaagh, he waved, he waved!”, and that was just the press photographers. For those in search of filmmakers and artistes, try the Cameo cinema’s bar – open till 3am – frequented by the creative types who enjoy its relaxed and un-pretentious style. iofilm.com

Colin Firth made his first trip to Scotland’s capital tonight as he attended the Edinburgh International Film Festival for the UK premiere of his film Trauma. Arriving outside the UGC Cinema to hordes of screaming females, he said: “I’m ashamed to admit, it is the first trip to Edinburgh in my life. “I have spent the last 20 years feeling like I have missed a party, so it is making up for a lot. “I love Scotland. The best working experiences in my life have been in Scotland.”  --Hilary Duncanson, Scottish Press Association 8/20/2004

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Single Tickets Available Online September 8 at 7AM!

Trauma  A stretch-out role for Colin Firth that may challenge fans of the cuddly English bachelor he so often plays in romantic comedies. This one is anything but romantic or comic, setting Firth as a coma victim named Ben who awakes to discover his wife Elisa (Naomie Harris) has been killed in a car crash. Ben was the driver. The tragedy is terrible but things are not as simple as they seem: A pop star acquaintance is suddenly found murdered, and police want to know if Ben has any ideas about who the killer might be. But our man is too busy brooding about his nagging suspicions regarding the lost Elisa. Directed by Marc Evans, whose video thriller My Little Eye played the festival in 2002, Trauma is disorienting and more than a little unsettling. (Sept. 17, 9:30 p.m., Ryerson; Sept. 18, 9:30 p.m., Elgin.) PH

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Locations:
 

Colin Firth filming in Lower Marsh -- Colin Firth has been filming in Lower Marsh with market traders  hired as extras. The star has been making Trauma, a Warner film due for release late next year, which tells the story of a man who struggles to overcome the death of his partner.  The Waterloo market was transformed for the three days of filming with extra stalls on both sides of the street and shops restocked for filming. The film company has paid £4000 to the traders to fund promoting the market which has recently suffered a loss in customer numbers following further office closures. Lower Marsh has also been promised a mention in the credits. london-se1.co.uk,  23/05/2003 One of the main themes explored in TRAUMA is the loneliness of urban life in a big city.  The film is set in London’s East End though it is not the romanticised view of London with which cinema audiences are familiar.  The combination of a muted colour palette, harsh textures and exteriors rarely seen in the sunshine give London both appearance and atmosphere of an alienating place to live.

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One of the main themes explored in TRAUMA is the loneliness of urban life in a big city.  The film 
is set in London’s East End though it is not the romanticised view of London with which cinema audiences are familiar.  The combination of a muted colour palette, harsh textures and exteriors rarely seen in the sunshine give London both appearance and atmosphere of an alienating place to live. 

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Much of the screen action takes place in Ben’s apartment, built on a stage in the Isle of Man Studios.  The apartment is converted from an old hospital and, in creating the space, production designer Crispian Sallis approached the design as an actual conversion, deliberately ‘retaining’  such elements as column radiators, exposed piping, linoleums, and twin coloured walls to create a strange and unsettling sanatorium-like surrounding in which Ben’s hallucinatory world unfolds.  The camera reveals a strange mixture of objects about the apartment, which tell us a lot about Ben.   “He has a lot of time on his hands and places things incredibly carefully.  I think everything is done for a reason, “ says Crispian:  “It’s very much a junkyard apartment for a man who’s exploring himself and the world.  An amalgam of found parts, found objects… I love bringing together things from disparate worlds, disparate cultures, some expensive, some cheap that don’t in themselves seem incredibly special but together create a lair, a world for Ben that’s very chosen and meticulous.” 

In London, the filmmakers found great locations in order to create their own version of the East End, logistically easier for film crews including The old Midland Hotel, now called St Pancras Chambers, a Grade I listed Gothic style building which fronts St Pancras Station.  In its heyday the Midland Grand Hotel was one of the most opulent in London but, essentially unmaintained until the 1990s, it provided an eerie backdrop for the converted hospital building in which Ben’s apartment is located. 

Deep in its bowels, the design team built the Old Morgue – originally part of the hospital – a chilling setting for the cast and crew who spent several days working in the dark, damp location. 

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Other locations used included Haggerston Park, one of the few East End locations used by the filmmakers; the Horniman Museum in South East London; and Lower Marsh – an historic market street in London’s Waterloo - which continued to be operational during the crew’s three-day shoot providing great interest for public and press. 

Some filming was done on the Isle of Man, Island Studios - Ramsey, Port St Mary, St Marks 
from the Isle of Man site; Trauma is an adult, psychological thriller dealing with contemporary themes and anxieties. Our obsession with celebrity, our inability to deal with grief and the loneliness of life in the big city. London is the backdrop and Ben (Colin Firth) is the focus. It is the tale of an ordinary man investigating his own psychosis. It operates on different levels of reality presenting us with characters, like the beautiful Charlotte (Mena Suvari) who may or may not be real and situations that may or may not be true. The plot twists and turns so that we are not sure even until the end whether it is Ben or the people around him are mad, whether it is his imagination or the world that he occupies that is becoming warped. Trauma is a suspenseful genre movie that deals with real feelings and follows in the footsteps of such recent modern myths as The Sixth Sense, The Others and K-Pax. It is a film that will challenge our minds as well as engaging our emotions and keep us guessing until the end. 

Comments about Colin 

“I couldn’t have lucked out any better working with Colin. He was so passionate about the project and so eager to give his insight into what he wanted. But in the same breath, he’d ask me what I wanted and if I was OK with things. I really appreciated it. It’s something I’ve never really had before.” Mena Suvari to Kevin Williamson, Calgary Sun

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With the London-based Trauma, [Marc Evans]says he wanted to explore the psyche of those people who "sit on the tube" and "live in bedsits". It was also moulded by a long conversation he had with Colin Firth about revisiting the "man in the suit" genre, the kind of Hitchcock thriller that got "beneath the skin and scratched around" (see Vertigo).... "It's  definitely not a summer movie," Marc told me with a wry smile. Marc Evans to BBC News

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Firth was easy to get on board and a pleasure for Evans to work with. "Colin was quite anxious to shed the Darcy role, and shirt, so he was up for it. What actor does not want to be in every scene of a film?" 

But Firth was never meant to be in the film—it was written for a younger man. However, Evans immediately thought of him when he read the script. "I worked with Colin on Ruth Rendell's Master of the Moor and I have always known he has a dark side. We sort of became friends and he was bemoaning the fact that people do not do the 'man in a suit' film anymore. So when I read the script I thought of him, as he was looking for the darker material. He said yes straight away." 

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The filmmakers were looking for an actor who embodied the essence of an ordinary man, yet could really stir an audience at the same time.  That actor was Colin Firth.

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Marc [Evans] comments:  “I have so much faith in Colin as an actor.  Technically, he is brilliant and he instinctively understood the character…I find him totally compelling.”  He had worked with Colin on a Ruth Rendell adaptation some ten years prior and welcomed the opportunity to work with him again.

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Marc continues:  “We chose Colin because I think he is somebody an audience can identify with, and will want to survive this fate that befalls him.”  Nicky adds:  “In spite of his desperate situation, Colin’s portrayal of Ben gives the character a pervasive sense of hope which will have the audience rooting for him.” 

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Actor Colin Firth goes some way to rescuing his screen persona from being forever enslaved to his romantic alter ego Darcy with his morose presence in Trauma, in which he plays the spooked survivor of a car crash. Dishevelled, disorientated and anything but dashing, Firth’s mental meltdown continues to hold the attention even when the fragmented plotline veers into some murky cul-de-sacs... ScreenDaily.com 02.2.2004

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Colin Firth, the ever-watchable and workmanlike performer, does the best with what he's given (which is lots of flashbacks, wide-eyed staring, sequences of sweaty angst, etc.) but there's barely enough meat here to support a whole movie, let alone a standout acting performance...http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/review.php?movie=8520&reviewer=128

 

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Firth does an excellent job of providing a dishevelled focus for this intriguing little psychological thriller cum horror drama. It's also a credit to his emotive performance - which dominates the film - that you sympathise with Ben even when you feel you can't trust him. 

Verdict:  An intriguing but not entirely satisfying film, featuring an impressive turn by Colin Firth.  Channel 4 review, 16.08.04

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It all starts so well. Colin Firth is superb as the traumatised Ben who wakes from a coma following a car accident in which his wife died. He is confused and on edge and his position is worsened by national grief for a murdered pop star and the implication that he may have been involved in some way...........Firth puts in a sterling performance in the central role - and almost tempted me to give the film an extra star - but he can't make something out of a plot that isn't there. iofilm's review, Reviewed by Elf

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Firth soldiers bravely on, presumably unaware of the mess he is involved in, and is the film's only bright point. He delivers a performance which highlights the range of his considerable talent, and the only success of the film for him may be that it opens doors for him in other genres Tiscali.co.uk

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Colin Firth, the ever-watchable and workmanlike performer, does the best with what he's given (which is lots of flashbacks, wide-eyed staring, sequences of sweaty angst, etc.) but there's barely enough meat here to support a whole movie, let alone a standout acting performance. E film critic

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From playing the original Darcy in the BBC's 'Pride and Prejudice' to a modern-day Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary, as well as having principal parts in mainstream romcoms like 'Fever Pitch', Hope Springs and What a Girl Wants, Colin Firth is the British romantic lead par excellence, and the very presence of his name on the marquee guarantees 'Trauma' a broader audience than a film so bleakly nightmarish might otherwise garner. It is not, however, just for commercial reasons that this is an ingenious piece of casting, for Firth is here once again playing his typical role as a romantic dreamer - only one who is waking up to a far less salubrious reality - and he makes an effective transition within the film from confused lover to just plain confused. MoveGazette

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Swapping his breeches for a lean and haunted look, three days' stubble, and the wild eyes of a madman, Firth has never been better. BBC Films 08.09.04

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Firth may be extremely watchable in the lead performance (ably demonstrating a darker, edgier side to his affable persona), but he is often let down by those around him This is Local London

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What Trauma does have is a frighteningly committed, career-best  performance from Colin Firth as an accident survivor who thinks he's losing his mind. Telegraph 17.09.04

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Firth is a revelation as Ben. Almost unrecognisable under a few days stubble and boasting a pair of haunted and tired eyes, this is certainly a fair cry from his days as Mr Darcy. While his remote and withdrawn may make it tough for audiences to feel much compassion for Ben, Firth still manages to create a bond, an achievement not to be overlooked. Yahoo Movies UK & Ireland

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Firth is totally convincing as a man tortured by fragmented memories of his past, and who may - or may not - be hiding some awful truths. UK Sunday Mirror 19.09.04

Comments by Colin

Bridget Jones star Colin Firth relished the chance to appear in a darker film, but it was working with the Welsh director that made the process worthwhile. 

 Firth said, "Marc and I worked together on the Ruth Rendell TV movie Master of the Moor and I thought he was brilliant. So I wanted to join him again but our numerous attempts never quite panned out. 

 "Then Trauma came out of leftfield and intrigued me enough to sign on to what was clearly going to be an interesting journey. My main motivation for doing anything these days is to work with people I have always wanted to collaborate with and this seemed the perfect opportunity for us." 
(Western Mail, 1/17/04, by Claire Hill) 

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Says Colin:  “It’s an incredibly lonely story. Ben is very isolated and hard to reach.”  Yet he believes his behaviour is perfectly understandable in the world Ben inhabits:  “If you’re walking down spooky corridors and something jumped out, you’d jump too.  If your wife died next to you in a car accident, and you saw her three days later, you’d freak out as well.  These things are happening to him, he’d be mad if he wasn’t freaked out”.  He continues:  “But Ben’s world is so lonely he doesn’t have anyone to measure his reactions against…”  Marc concurs:  “Left to his own devices, without people around to support him, Ben goes further into this corner of insanity and doesn’t realise how far adrift from the normal he’s got.” 

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"It reminded me a little bit of paranoia films I liked in the '70s, some of the Polanski films and Don't Look Now" Firth says. "It's unashamedly trying to mess with your mind." Premiere, Nov 2003

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Firth revealed, "Trauma may seem a departure from what I'm now known for but I was appearing in quirky features like Tumbledown about the horrors of war, and Apartment Zero about the human psyche's dark side way before I took on Darcy. Ben is the sort of role that was my territory in the early days. Marc and I worked together on the Ruth Rendell TV movie Master  of the Moor and I thought he was brilliant. So I wanted to join him again but our numerous attempts never quite panned out.  Then Trauma came out of left field and intrigued me enough to sign on to what was clearly going to be an interesting journey.  My main motivation for doing anything these days is to work with people I have always wanted to collaborate with and this  seemed the perfect opportunity for us. It's a hard film to discuss because not only is the entire film told from a subjective point  of view, meaning I'm in every scene except for the final shock revelation, we must also strike a balance between being overly  obtuse and cryptic to being boringly prosaic and explanatory. We don't want to frustrate the audience by being too baffling  about what's really going on but we still have to retain the necessary air of mystery. Film Review

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The character of Ben is a return for Colin to quirkier roles he played earlier in his career ‘pre boots and jodhpurs’ and an opportunity to explore a man’s darker side than he had been able to do in the romantic roles for which he has become well known.   He was also keen to team up again with Marc, and Jonathan Cavendish who had produced “Bridget Jones’s Diary”.

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As Colin puts it, his character ‘is deeply traumatised and he has a problem recalling what his  reality was before the car accident, so we see the world through his very confused eyes.  ‘He lives alone in this flat and his world is very unsettling.’ Colin thinks a little bit of fear is  good for us. ‘If you spend your life wanting to keep everything light, you might end of a little  bit twisted. I’d be suspicious of someone who is only ever laughing.’ Mena plays a neighbour,  who tries to help him.  Baz Bamigboye, Daily Mail, 6/27/03

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Playing the character took its toll on Colin.  He appears in almost every scene, distraught and dishevelled, and admits:  “It’s been fascinating getting inside his head, but I do go home feeling a little off-centre.”  Yet despite the dark subject matter, the set was a happy place for him to be, not least of all because of his relationship with Marc.  “His personality is inconsistent with how dark the work is.  He is the most even-keeled, approachable, amusing, easy-to-be with person you could possibly imagine.  I have never, ever seen a dark side to him - except on the screen.”  Colin also finds working with Marc an enormously collaborative experience:  “It’s a sign of Marc’s security and imagination that he is prepared to take ideas from others and allow them to inspire him.  Marc thrives on that.”  He continues:  “However, his vision is very, very strong.”

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'Trauma' was emotionally draining to make. It would have taken a lot for me not to want to work with Marc Evans.  Esquire UK Nov 2004

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South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales), March 12, 2005 p14 
WINNING A BAFTA DOESN'T HAFTA BE A TRAUMA. (News) 
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2005 MGN Ltd. 
Byline: By LAUREN TURNER South Wales Echo 
Trauma has led to a trophy for the makers of an unusual film website. Cardiff-born Jonathan Green has
won a Bafta with his design company Franki & Jonny for their website to promote the psychological
drama Trauma. The pair scooped the film award at the Bafta Interactive ceremony last Wednesday,
despite having set up their company just two years ago. 

Jonathan, 33, who was born and raised in Wenvoe, said: 'It is brilliant to have won. 
'We were hopeful but it was still a surprise when our name was read out.' 

Link to a Flash version of the trailer at Amelie's site. Thanks Amelie.

Link to Warner Bros. site for Trauma

Link to Marc Evans diary

Link to Marc Evans interview

Link to Mena Suvari interview
 
 

Unless otherwise noted, all information on this page is from the Trauma presskit

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