Imagine you’re at dinner with your spouse when he tells you something so traumatizing, you can’t remember what it was. And now imagine that after he goes missing year later, you still can’t recall – and you REALLY need to. That’s what happens in director Savannah Bloch’s feature film debut, And Then There Was Eve. While the rest of the film is ostensibly about trying to find out what happened to her husband, what we are really watching is the protagonist wife, Alyssa (played by Tania Nolan) exploring what her new life without a husband may really mean. In the process, she reaches out to her husband’s collaborator (Rachel Crowl) to see if she might have any clues that could help her locate her lost man.

Tania Nolan and Rachel Crowl in AND THEN THERE WAS EVE

Amazingly, despite the rivalry, these two characters develop a fond relationship, to the point that partway into the film, the main plot of locating Alyssa’s husband becomes almost lost. While spending time and getting to know this “other woman,” something entirely unexpected happens. It’s hard to talk about the progression of events without giving away too much. But in case any viewer worries that the mystery of the missing hubby isn’t resolved (a la Fellini’s L’avventura), no need to fear. The building up of events comes full circle with a hard-hitting twist ending you won’t see coming, probably the most surprising reveal since…but that would be telling.

AND THEN THERE WAS EVE

Suffice to say, it’s an extraordinary clever resolution, one which is as much brain-twisting as it is shocking. A second viewing might just be needed to go back and see what the final reality means, because the fact is, somewhere in her mind, Alyssa knew the truth all along. That little bit of amnesia on her husband’s last words to her is stronger than we think. Putting that information into context absolutely changes the nature of every interaction she has in the film. A repeated screening will undoubtedly alter the entire nature of the experience, a quality most films do not offer. In the end, audiences are left to wonder if there aren’t moments we choose to forget which not only define us, but redefine us. Elegantly staged, with an impressive production value, folks who enjoyed the first time around will only be too happy to take another trip.

An unexpected relationship develops in AND THEN THERE WAS EVE