The Moment (2013 film)

The Moment is a 2013 American psychological thriller film directed by Jane Weinstock, written by Gloria Norris and Weinstock, and starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Martin Henderson, Alia Shawkat, and Meat Loaf. Leigh plays a war photographer who, suffering from PTSD, becomes unsure whether she is responsible for her ex-boyfriend's disappearance.

Having previously broken up with her boyfriend John, photographer Lee returns to John's house to retrieve her cameras. There, she discovers mounting evidence that John has not been home for a long time. Worried, she contacts the police, and Sergeant Goodman takes her report, though he suggests that John may simply not want to contact her. At an exhibition of her work, her daughter Jessie rebukes her efforts at reconciliation, and Lee mistakes a stranger for John. Haunted by her experiences in Somalia, Lee experiences mental breakdown and leaves the bathroom completely naked. Her ex-husband and daughter escort her out and have her committed to an upscale psychiatric hospital.

At the hospital, Dr. Bloom expresses skepticism at Lee's insistence that she has killed John. Instead, Dr. Bloom suggests that Lee may have created a false memory due to the stress in her life. Peter, a defense attorney who blames himself for the subsequent murder of a legal aide by a murderer he helped to free, offers to put his office at her disposal. Lee is stunned by the resemblance between John and Peter, but tells Dr. Bloom that they are polar opposites in personality and demeanor. Flashbacks and psychotherapy sessions reveal that Lee and John met in a hospital after he was involved in a car accident, and she was the victim for a suicide bombing.

Peter hires a private investigator to research John's disappearance, and further flashbacks fill in details about John and Lee's romance. Intrigued by John's background as a wrongly-convicted felon, Lee invites him to pose for her as a model. Although wary of more attention from photographers, he agrees, and they begin to develop a bond. At the same time, Jessie develops a resentment toward their growing closeness. Later flashbacks reveal repressed memories that John had briefly dated Jessie before becoming involved with Lee. Furious, Lee breaks up with John, and Jessie wishes that her mother had died in the suicide bombing.