Wicker Park (2004) – Obsession, Illusion, and the Most 2004 Movie Ever Made

How many tracking shots does it take to find a lost love? In this high-style, low-logic thriller-romance from the early 2000s, Matthew is consumed by a single question: what happened to Lisa? And we’re consumed by a different one: wait, who is Lisa again?

Before Gone Girl, before You, there was Wicker Park — a 2004 psychological romance thriller where Josh Hartnett broods, stalks, and slowly unravels over the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend. But what starts as a moody Chicago-set love story quickly twists into a hall-of-mirrors thriller, complete with mistaken identities, overheard voicemails, and one very dramatic bathroom stall.

A remake of the French film L’Appartement, Wicker Park is equal parts earnest and absurd — dripping with late-stage Miramax vibes and MTV-era editing. Hartnett plays Matthew, a young man on the verge of marriage who instead chases the memory of his vanished ex (Diane Kruger) across Chicago. The deeper he falls down the rabbit hole, the more the film fractures: timelines loop, reality blurs, and no one — especially Rose Byrne’s enigmatic Alex — is who they appear to be.

It’s a movie of big feelings, bigger coincidences, and enough split-screen montages to power a 2004 MySpace fan edit. The question isn’t just whether they’ll reunite — it’s whether any of this made sense in the first place.

 

What we cover:

 

• When obsession poses as romance

• Why 2000s films loved nonlinear storytelling (and when it works)

• Josh Hartnett’s quiet-era leading man energy

• Rose Byrne’s secret weapon performance

• The film’s timeline: innovative or incoherent?

• “Memory montage” as a genre of its own

• 2000s fashion and editing clichés

• The final verdict: worth remembering — or better left behind?

 

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