The story begins with a young boys disappearance whilst playing in a field near his grandmother house. Upon his return he states he's been "in a car with a man" much to his parents horror. But when questioned he seems to remember nothing of his time missing, not even the car journey he eluded to when he first reappeared.
The story picks up ten years later with the boy now eighteen years old and struggling to deal with the psychological trauma from that day. He still has no memory of what happened to him but he is convinced he was molested. When seeing a similar car to his abductors jogs his memory, he makes his way back to the field from which he went missing and finds a young boy playing just as he was. He abducts the young boy and begins to relive the events of that day in the hope of learning what happened to him ten years previous.
The stripped down approach of this episode really shows just how well you can tell a story in a one hour run time. The episode focuses primarily on.the boy Richard portrayed.very well by Max and. Ben Brazier. We see enough of his inner torment to be invested in his search for truth. When he abducts young Nicholas Hoult's Barry he becomes obsessive about reliving that day. There is a genuine fear about what we are going to see play out. How far is he willing to go to remember everything?
The ending is very well thought out and equally unexpected. Nothing bad happened to him, he was driven to a local fort, ate fish and chips and played hide and seek. Its hinted throughout that his mother is over bearing and he doesn't have many friends. The fact he makes a routine of playing in a scrap filled field with a local cat shows his loneliness. We find out he actually enjoyed his time playing with his abductor. Compared to the young Nicholas Hoult's character who is far more confident, has no complaints about his life and seems less enamored with Richard wanting to be his friend. What The Fallen Curtain does well is drop just enough clues to keep you guessing till the end. The fact the eight year old Richard reappears quite unnerved and willing to talk about what happened that day to the girl who finds him gives one clue. His shock and fear upon returning to his home filled with police and hysterical parents is another clue. Finally the remaining memory of that day jumping from him playing in the field to his screaming hysterical mother should be another clue as to what the real shock was that caused his memory loss. Its a great representation of just how easy it can be to damage a child's.fragile psyche. The final scenes show the parents of Nicholas Hoult's "Barry" also assuming the worst and police turning up to question eighteen year old Richard about Barry's abduction. We are left wondering if Barry is confident enough to stick with his recollection of what happened that day or if the reaction of his parents and police will lead to his memory being skewed and the events of ten years prior repeating themselves. Only this time, with Richard squarely identified in the child's abduction.
The stream line story telling is supported by good performances from Max and Ben Brazier as Richard aged eight and eighteen respectively and a solid performance from the young Hoult. My only real reservation is the motives of Richards abductor are left ambiguous. Its hinted that he was a lonely man who saw a lonely boy and decided to give him a day out having fun. But a bit of back story would help here to clarify his intent. Even something cliched like the recent loss of his own child would make the whole event seem more tragic than weird. Although with the short run time squeezing in even a few lines of exposition may have been too much to ask. Over all worth a watch and does in one hour what many series would take multiple episodes to accomplish.
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