“Following” is the first film from director Christopher Nolan, who would go on to direct the masterpieces “The Prestige” and “Memento”. The movie is a low-budget thriller and was filmed in black and white. It gripped me at first but the finale was a disappointment.

“Following” focus on an aspiring writer, credited only as ‘The Young Man’ (Jeremy Theobald), who decides to start following strangers around the streets of London. He has a set of rules but when he breaks them, he meets a thief. The criminal takes the writer under his wing and things start to get complicated and dangerous.

When the movie is so low-budget, you need great characters and great writing to make it work. The writer character is quite good and I do like the thief a lot. Their interactions are actually very interesting at times. The big problems start with the introduction of the female character, credited as ‘The Blonde’. There is also a gangster character, credited as ‘The Bald Guy’, and I did not care for him at all. The film tries to tie these characters together in a meaningful way but the more complex the mystery becomes, the less interesting it is. The movie has so few characters and only two of them are any good.

I was fascinated by the initial ideas presented in “Following” but the twists and turns feel a little forced. The movie almost feels like a blueprint for “Memento”. For people that have seen Nolan’s more famous later work, it might interest you see the humble beginning of a great filmmaker. However, as a film itself, it lacks the polish it needs to be truly satisfying. I will note that it is nice to see a movie in black and white, showing that you do not always need to make your film in colour.