‘Memory’ movie review: a gripping emotional drama with genuine heart
In the opening moments of Memory, Jessica Chastain’s protagonist, Sylvia, is followed home by a stranger she rejected at a party. In the cinema, chests tighten. Women shift in their seats, watching as she goes through the motions of familiar safety precautions. When she gets home and locks the door, the man is still waiting outside, and there still isn’t any relief.
Writer and director Michel Franco starts big and gets smaller. In these opening scenes, the topic of danger and sexual violence is introduced in the most universal way possible. As the threat subsides and the man is revealed to be Saul, a man struggling with early onset dementia, the film’s topics at once both burst open and single in on these two characters and their encounter.
While sexual violence is a major topic of the movie, as Sylvia suffers from clear PTSD from abuse, this is a work about perception. It challenges the view to consider how memory and experience change us and how we navigate life and each new day while being undeniably shaped by what has come before. Between Sylvia’s hyper-vigilance and remembrance of the painful past and Saul’s loosening grip on his memory, the viewer is cemented in the middle, in a perfect vantage point to consider and feel for both sides.
At the heart of the film, it is a romance. Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard’s on-screen chemistry is gripping in the most delicate and tender way. While drama swells around them, the beauty of Memory comes in quiet moments as the two characters share and swap care roles. Sylvia is quite literally hired to be Saul’s carer but does so in a way that empowers him to be more in control as his life feels stolen from him.
Then, in moments where Sylvia breaks, after a devastating climax scene where she confronts those who enabled her abuse or refused to believe her story, Saul appears as a necessary supporter in an opposite way. There is so much feeling in the simple acts of him bringing her water or hugging her in the bath. While Sylvia helps Saul do more, he lets her do less, finally giving a victim space to be exactly that in a world that rarely allows us to crumble.
This incredibly acted romance is a grounding rod in the tale. Throughout the film, its contemplation on perception leads to hefty moral questioning. On the walk out of the screening, I found myself talking to a friend about whether the romance was ethical, if Sylvia had a duty of care over Saul as his carer or whether he was able to adequately consent. At one point, Sylvia finds an image of Saul’s late wife that looks just like her, only adding to this consideration of whether Saul was merely conflating the two women rather than being able to step confidently and consensually into something new.
On the flip side, the plot-line of Sylvia’s quiet rage and fear as an adult woman still dealing with the aftermath of child sexual abuse is devastatingly frustrating. In her relationship with her daughter, considerations of trauma cycles and generational pain are brought up, forcing the audience to wonder whether her shielding of her child is rightful or restrictive. Franco stays firmly in the world of realism as we watch Sylvia get no relief or justice. While Saul gains freedom and the pair both gain love and support, the topic of sexual violence remains as open-ended and enduring as it does both in the lingering, unending threat of the opening scene and, sadly, in real life.
Through dealing with universal topics of memory, perception, abuse, and how experience shapes identity, Memory finds an endearing and gripping centre. Chastain and Sarsgaard embody their roles fully in the most beautifully normal way. These characters feel real. Their suffering and struggles and even their day-to-day life are thoughtfully played out to allow the bigger topics to open up questions but never feel overbearing. Perfectly navigating the contrast between major drama and minor domestic moments, the film does so much without being too much. While still full of gripping and swelling moments of drama, Memory lets every little emotion find its natural level.
Moving, gripping and heartwarming in equal and masterful measure, Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard are captivating in Memory.
