The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitty, or remember their years together. While Baldry attempts to cope with the unfamiliar surroundings of his own home, he seeks out the company of an old flame from his childhood, Margaret Grey. His amnesia also makes him a ready target for the affections of his older cousin, Jenny.
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"Chris" (Alan Bates) has returned from the Great War with no idea who his wife "Kitty" (Julie Christie) is. This rather upsets her. Initially, not so much because he doesn't remember her, but because it has disrupted her upper-middle class lifestyle and because he also appears to have regressed back to "Margaret" (Glenda Jackson) - a woman with whom he was in love many years earlier and who has now married "William" (Frank Finlay). Determined to regain his affections, "Kitty" employs psychiatrist "Dr. Anderson" (Ian Holm) to try and see if her husband can be "cured" but as time goes on and with the affectionate but ultimately quite confusing attentions of cousin "Jenny" (Ann-Margret) clouding the issue as well as an increasingly hands-off approach taken by this physician, it looks like "Chris" is going to have to start from scratch - and who knows what path he may take. Though it might appear a familiar formula, this is about as far from being a "love triangle" as you're ever likely to get and the efforts from all concerned - especially, I felt, the underused Finlay, really do work here in crafting an environment where Bates is really left to wander in what we Scots call a dwam. It's as if his brain has gone back in time for reasons of safety and comfort as much as love, yet it's clear that he must have loved "Kitty" too - and there is certainly a little ambiguity about the feelings "Jenny" has had, or still has, for her troubled cousin. The production design creates a delicately balanced sense of bucolic empire charm mixed with stark wartime realism and the fact that these actors have worked together regularly before isn't wasted on their abilities to deliver something poignant as an ensemble without anyone pulling more of the spotlight down on them. It's sympathetically scored by Richard Rodney Bennett and though I would have to say that the pace can be a little on the glacial side at times, this offers us quite an unique take on some of the most distasteful and misunderstood elements of surviving the battle.
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