My thoughts.
I just watched The Following and I liked it very much. Nolan as usual tells a good story in a very interesting way. It is a very impressive first film. I think the premise is very interesting, a man who 'shadows' people out of interest, then it becomes an obsession and it takes control of his life. The strong points of the film would be the absence of chronological storytelling which creates more mystery and suspense. For instance I was constantly guessing why 'Bill' had bruises and cuts on his face. Other strong points would be that the story was central. There was no evident style or'eye candy' to take away from the story and I think it benefited because of it. Basically what I'm saying was the direction was great. Simple and intriguing. The only thing I didn't understand was the reasoning for was why it was shot in black and white. My only guess is because they had strict shooting times and limited budget so they went for a simple method (no need to colour correct, check colour temperature ect.). Where this film falls down is the ending. I do not mean that the film had a bad ending, just that Jeremy Theobald didn't have the skill to portray the needed emotions in two vital scenes. The scene in which he confronts The Blonde (Lucy Russel), and the final scene in which he realises that he was tricked by Cobb. I was unable to feel much sympathy for the character in the final scene as he himself did not seem to be too upset. Theobald's acting was perfectly fine in all but these two scenes, but in the end the film suffers because of it. Alex Haw was very impressive as Cobb and Russel was fine as The Blonde. Overall i enjoyed the film, but was a little let down with the lack of emotion in the final moments of this otherwise brilliantly told story.
My Rating : 7/10
Review aside I do realise that this is an achievement by Nolan as a first film, and that when you use non-actors you can't get the desired results, but I was reviewing the film, not the director's ability to make a film with his limited resources.