While I’m definitely saying that this movie was compelling, interesting, well acted and well-written, I’m going to just come right out and say that it is also maddeningly frustrating. For instance, the first fifteen minutes of film are used in a very trippy collage of flashback and present day experiences, all in order to set a mood instead of laying down the groundwork of the story itself. At the end of those fifteen minutes, really, all you know is that something happened and that someone is subsequently searching for something.

Granted, that is the entire gist of the movie, but I’d have liked a bit more clarification in the beginning of a film, instead of being smothered in the emotional context. Another thing that I found odd upon first watching the film, was the director's choice to use super-saturated and grainy color footage for all of Claire’s flashbacks, when the rest of the film is in beautifully shot black and white.

Since then, I suppose, I’m thinking that all of our memories are really nothing more than super-saturated 8mm home movies that play on imperfect projectors in our mind, so maybe it wasn’t such an odd choice. It still made for a confusing first trip through the film, though. In a film where the past and Claire’s memories are so important, having them filmed in such a fashion just threw me for a loop.

So. Here we are at the end of everything, and I’m sitting here after having watched the film a few times, and I’m supposed to tell you whether or not this is a movie that you will enjoy watching. Right. Well, my answer is that I don’t know.

Numb is one hell of a trippy movie that uses acting and the very way it was filmed to portray a vision of the future, as well as the vision of one woman desperately in search of something missing from her past. On many levels, it succeeds brilliantly in those goals, but the haphazard and confusing way that major plot elements and story are thrown about the film, instead of being clearly explained from the get-go, might be more than some people are willing to invest in a movie.

For those of you looking for fast and easy entertainment with a science-fiction feel, Numb might not exactly have you rushing out into the streets and singing its praise. However, for those of you that are willing to take on a challenge and have a movie irritate the hell out of you until you’re left sitting in the dark and discovering that you’ve enjoyed it immensely, then I think Numb might just be the thing for you.