The Actor review: André Holland is a man with amnesia trying to find himself

Despite splitting the difference between stage and screen in dazzling ways, Duke Johnson’s The Actor is all shine and no substance. Starring André Holland as an amnesiac stage performer piecing together his past, the part-thriller, part-love story fails to alchemize its many flourishes, leaving only a dull, hollow core.

Adapted from Donald Westlake’s novel Memory — which was written in 1963, but only published in 2010 — Johnson’s second directorial effort features flashes of brilliance that never quite cohere. Like its lead character, the film meanders aimlessly when it should have at least hints of purpose; his issues of identity feature mild hints of metaphor for losing oneself in everyday malaise, but they’re never fully articulated. Its methods also call to mind better works about memory, an...