In the eponymous eternally nocturnal metropolis John Murdock, (Rufus Sewell), awakens to be informed by Dr. Screber, (Kiefer Sutherland), via the telephone that he has no memory, such is the case. Oh and there is a brutally murdered prostitute on his bedroom floor. In a nightmare investigation reminiscent of both Kafka and John Franklin Bardin, Detective Bumstead, (William Hurt), hunts Murdock for this and other murders. However, he is also persued by mysteriously powerful bald men in long coats and black hats, known collectively as 'The Strangers'.

     This then could be the best adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story ever, though he did not pen it. A film of ideas, about memory, that combines the best of the short-story by Frederik Pohl 'Tunnel Under the World' with the design and eye of the comic 'Mister X' and the film 'City of the Lost Children'. There are chase sequences and explosions (and a welcome return for Jennifer Connelly), but the film is dedicated to the memory of Dennis Potter. If 'Cold Lazarus' was 'Nigel Barton on Ice', this is 'Nigel Barton in Hell'.

Reviewed by Cardinal Cox.