Till Human Voices Wake Us (2003)

Synopsis: For as long as people have fallen in love, they have been haunted; haunted by memories, by regrets, by unfulfilled longings. Dr. Sam Frank (Guy Pearce) is haunted in just such a way by his shattering first love, an unforgettable summertime romance that ended in loss and terror. Years later, he... For as long as people have fallen in love, they have been haunted; haunted by memories, by regrets, by unfulfilled longings. Dr. Sam Frank (Guy Pearce) is haunted in just such a way by his shattering first love, an unforgettable summertime romance that ended in loss and terror. Years later, he remains a loner, an expert in the psychology of repression and memory, yet a man who lets no one close.

Until now. Suddenly, a stranger on a train (Helena Bonham Carter) changes everything - and compels Sam into an otherworldly mystery that will take him to the eerie, evocative territory where fear and passion, desire and the unknowable meet.

A supernatural romance, Till Human Voices Wake Us probes the mystifying nature of attraction, memory, identity and a ghostly past that will go away. It all begins when Sam must bury his dead father back in Genoa, a country town in the Australian Bush where he spent his summers as a teenager. Briefly, he meets a ravishing woman on the train named Ruby. She seems oddly familiar, but Sam, now distant and dispassionate, does not make a connection.

Soon, Sam's journey provokes unavoidable memories of what was the best, and worst, summer of his life. As a teenager, young Sam (Lindley Joyner) was excited about everything in the world, even insects buzzing in the air, and the very source of his curiosity and joy was his neighbor Silvy (Brooke Harmon), a sweet and beautiful girl whose imagination soared despite her legs being bound in braces. He and Silvy were like twin souls.

Together, they explored the rugged countryside, dodged the local woman believed to be a witch, played word games, shared poetry. It was bliss. They went for night swims in the river, watched the stars, kissed tenderly in the water. And then in one terrible, inexplicable moment it all ended - and with Silvy's disappearance so also vanished the last traces of Sam's hunger for life.

Now back home after 20 years away, Sam finds his father's house full of bitter recriminations and remembrances turned to silent ghosts. Trying to escape, he heads for the city on a stormy night, only to witness something shocking: a drenched woman standing on a bridge, balanced precariously. Then, she plunges.

Sam rescues the nearly-drowned woman only to discover she is the Ruby from the train. Once awakened she cannot remember her name, or any of the details from her life or past. She is trapped without any certainty of why she is in Sam's hometown at all, yet she is also struck with an underlying sense that they were destined to meet.

Sam tries to use his psychological expertise to help the enigmatic woman recover. Yet even as he grows closer to her, he cannot crack the secrets of her identity. For the first time since he was a teen, Sam is beginning to feel passion again. Nevertheless, he has to wonder: for whom exactly is he falling?

Sam feels almost caught in a dream, except that he swears he no longer dreams as an adult. Disturbing coincidences begin to mesmerize and frighten him. He and the mystery woman play word games and quote poetry. They go for night swims in the river, watch the stars, even kiss. He is repeating what has come before, but in an entirely new and sensual way.

Hoping to get to the root of the mystery, Sam practices hypnotherapy on the woman he knows simply as Ruby, taking her into a past that only yields further riddles and tantalizing mysteries.

Is she insane? Is she a figment of his imagination? Is he dreaming? Mixed with Sam's doubt, fear and unraveling emotions is an undeniable longing to be with Ruby and, despite the risks, they become lovers. At last Sam believes he knows who Ruby really is, but a more haunting question arises: what does she want?

And is it he who has awakened the dead, or she who will reawaken him?

Till Human Voice Wake Us is written and directed by Michael Petroni and stars Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter, with Lindley Joyner, Brooke Harman, Frank Gallacher and Peter Curtin. The producers are Matthias Emke and Thomas Augsberger for Key Entertainment and Shana Levine, Dean Murphy, Nigel Odell and David Redman of Instinct Entertainment.

[More]