Psychiatric Movie Analysis

THE THREE LIVES OF KAREN

SUMMARY:

Gail O'Grady portrays a young woman suffering from fugue amnesia (repressed memory), forgetting blocs of years due to an inability to handle emotional stress, resulting in a compulsion to establish completely new beginnings. Her condition occurs twice, in each case inspiring a flight to fresh surroundings to avoid forms of mental distress with which her conscious mind cannot cope.
As the story begins she is Karen Winthrop, a woman working as an antique dealer, planning her wedding with her fiancé Matt (Tim Guinee). She is portrayed living a happy, contented life with Matt, yet flashbacks of her elusive and daunting past seem to haunt her for the past four years, in which she narrates that she cannot remember. Shortly before the scheduled nuptials, an attorney, Paul Riggs (Dennis Boutsikaris), bewilders her by revealing that she is his wife Emily, vanished for four years, and that they are parents of a nine-year-old daughter, Jessica (Monica Katherine Bugajski). Karen/Emily, shocked and overwhelmed, decides to follow Paul to his house to disclose the truth she suspects, as well as to uncover the past that she has burdened, against Matt's discretion, and leaves him.
She arrives at the Riggs' mansion and reunites with her daughter. At first, Jessica seemed to be anger-stricken, but after Karen/Emily explains everything, they are reconciled. Paul, in an effort to recollect memories for his wife, prepares a small party with immediate family and friends. There, Karen/Emily meets her inlaws, and Donna (Marguerite Lowell) her neighbor and “friend.” More haunting flashbacks daunt Karen, now those with the beach and a little girl beneath a window, and after Matt pays a her a visit, she remains unwilling to return back home, causing further strain in their relationship.
In a school trip by Jessica, she is led back to the beach in her flashbacks, and she experiences a blackout. The next thing she knew, ahe was in another city, being... [continues]

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