A black-and-white noir story of trust and betrayal, this film establishes many of the themes that would become hallmarks of Christopher Nolan's films.
Set in London, Following is the story of Bill, a lonely unemployed author experiencing writer's block. Short on cash and ideas and fueled by his voyeuristic fetish, he devises a game: pick a random pedestrian and follow them around town observing their daily routine. There are some rules though... he never follows the same person more than once and he never gets involved in their lives. He tells himself this is strictly research for potential characters in his writing, but it soon goes beyond research when he follows and ultimately develops a relationship with a mysterious well-dressed man named Cobb. Unfortunately for Bill, Cobb has a few secrets and an agenda of his own and nothing is as it seems...
The first half hour seems to be a simple story of a guy with way too much free time on his hands, but as we soon discover, there's a lot more going on than is initially revealed. Nolan takes his time peeling back the layers (and plays around with our notions of what's in the present and what isn't in a big way), but when everything is laid out, it's a stunner. And it makes sense, too. Unlike some other flicks that have had this sort of labyrinthine structure, Nolan's made sure that everything works (same as he did with Memento). It's the sort of film (again, like Memento) that demands a second viewing, just so you can see what sort of hints Nolan has dropped along the way.
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