'Faces In The Crowd' Trailer - Milla Jovovich Sustains A Head Injury

A new international trailer has dropped for Julien Magnat's Faces in the Crowd, starring Milla Jovovich as an elementary school teacher with the misfortune to witness a serial killer's latest attack. Though she survives the incident, she sustains an injury that renders her completely unable to remember faces — even those of her dearest loved ones. With Detective Kerrest (Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon) on her side, Jovovich's character must find a way to recognize the killer before he finds her. Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), Michael Shanks (Stargate SG-1), and Marianne Faithfull also star. Watch the trailer after the jump.

[via Dread Central]

Prosopagnosia, or "face blindness" as it's commonly called, seems so like a condition tailor-made for dramas or thrillers (much like amnesia or Capgras syndrome) that I'm surprised there aren't more films about it already. It's a real and actually not terribly uncommon disorder that renders sufferers unable to remember faces, even those of their own parents or spouses. Most victims are born with it, but some acquire it later in life after sustaining head injuries that damage a certain part of the brain. (Click here to listen to a fascinating Radiolab piece about the condition.)

Unfortunately, despite its seemingly fresh twist, the trailer for Faces in the Crowd doesn't make it look all that different from any other serial killer pic. Perhaps the actual film is better than this spot makes it look, but from here it looks like a mediocre film as forgettable as the faces Jovovich encounters.

Synopsis:

A serial killer has been terrorizing the city. An innocent bystander (Milla) witnesses his latest attack, but while fleeing, she falls from a bridge and is knocked unconscious. When she awakes in the hospital, she can't recognize family, her boyfriend or even her own face in the mirror. She is diagnosed with prosopagnosia, or 'face blindness'. This is a real neurological disorder, like dyslexia but with faces, caused by a lesion of the temporal lobe, the part of the brain that allows us in a heartbeat to compare someone's face with all the faces stored in our memory. She is incapable of recognizing the same face twice. Every time she looks at someone, it's like she's never met them before. Being the only witness, she is hunted by the killer, leaving her paranoid in a sea of unfamiliar faces. Where can she turn? Who can she trust? Who is she waking up next to? Who is standing next to her? This suspense thriller takes us on a terrifying ride thru the blurry eyes of a woman searching for a monster amongst the faces in the crowd.

Though a few sites have reported a release date of October 25, 2011, it seems that date is preliminary rather than official.