I would feel a lot better about recommending “Unknown White Male” if I knew what it was.

Watching this movie was one of the weirdest experiences I have had reviewing films. It purports to be a documentary about a man with amnesia. But is it a documentary? Or is it a fictional hoax designed by cynical filmmakers?

I have my own conclusions about that. As to the film itself, if it’s real, it would be a terribly affecting study of a man learning to live after “a re-booting of his system.”

According to the movie, Doug Bruce, a 35-year-old Englishman living in New York, finds himself on the subway near Coney Island one day in 2003.

He has no idea what he is doing there. In fact, he has no idea who he is.

He checks into a hospital, but has no identification. Has he been mugged and his wallet stolen? Was he injured and suffered memory loss?

Nobody knows, but he is identified in fairly quick order. Despite undergoing tests, he can’t get his memory back. He has money, having been a stockbroker before developing amnesia.

At which point, a friend from England, Rupert Murray, decides to begin filming Bruce’s journey toward assembling a life. Conveniently, Bruce has also been videotaping steps along the way.

As it progresses, “Unknown White Male” reaches for a theme that is really quite stirring: that someone in the middle of life might suddenly get a chance to remake himself – not by re-creating what he had been before, but by trying to be better than he’d been.

There’s some evidence presented that the old Bruce was a glib, superficial person.

The film’s story line mirrors Aki Kaurismaki’s wonderful film “The Man Without a Past.” If it is a true documentary, it’s an amazing film. If it’s not a documentary, Bruce gives an amazing performance in the lead role.

In interviews, director Murray insists the story is true. It’s strange that none of the doctors who treated Bruce will comment, although we get a lot from an interview with a Harvard professor who speaks generally about the subject of amnesia, making it sound as though he’s talking about Bruce specifically.

To me, the movie feels fake. Everything fits a little too neatly, and the interviewees sound a little too artfully unrehearsed.

It would be nice to know, one way or the other. Actually, it matters. It matters whether “Unknown White Male” is real or not. It completely changes one’s approach to this movie.

‘Unknown White Male’ HH

Hoax or real?: Purported documentary film gets into some very interesting issues, but it has the feel of a hoax, which would completely change the impact.

Rated: PG-13 for language.

Now showing: Harvard Exit, Seattle