Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Liam Neeson, Monica Bellucci, Guy Pearce, Ray Stevenson
Intro:
… a cut and dry Neeson vehicle with added neurodegenerative complications.
Memory, directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), is another Liam Neeson movie where he comes in with a certain set of skills to take down the baddy. Whereas previous films have seen the action star unflappable as an ex-CIA operative, ice road trucker or alcoholic NYPD cop, Memory tries to tap more into a sense of vulnerability for the actor.
Neeson plays Max, a much sought-after hitman who thinks nothing of garrotting his victims in front of their mothers. In fact, we see him do as much in the film’s opening. However, something is off. When Max returns to his car, there’s a glimmer of panic as he realises that he’s misplaced his car keys. Unfortunately, you see, for a man who needs to always have his wits about him, Max has early onset Alzheimer’s.
Of course, this is Hollywood dementia of which the symptoms only surface when they are needed to serve the plot. However, in these moments, it allows Neeson to tap into something a bit meatier than an unstoppable Irish brick wall.
Max takes on a job for businessperson Davana Sealman (Monica Bellucci) who, unbeknown to him, is desperate to ensure that certain parties don’t find out about her son’s vulgar appetite for young sex workers. As is often the case in these scenarios, Max is suddenly in over his head and on the run.
Ostensibly, this is a cut and dry Neeson vehicle with added neurodegenerative complications. However, based on the Dutch novel and subsequent adaptation The Alzheimer Case, Memory fleshes out its world by also following FBI agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pearce), who is desperate to make amends for failing to care for a sex worker who is murdered.
The screenplay by Dario Scardapane (The Punisher TV series) confidently bounces between Neeson, Pearce and Bellucci as their disparate threads are tied together.
For his part, Campbell keeps things muted even as the violence ramps up. This is a sombre action flick that manages to balance grounded performances with overzealous scenes of people having their throats slit as they drink wine. That said, there are creative choices made that while not criminal certainly pull you out of the film. Choices like distinctly non-Mexican actors playing distinctly Mexican characters with outrageous accents. Of course, it could be argued that these moments fall down to the film’s production taking place in Bulgaria instead of El Paso, but it still sticks in the craw, nonetheless. Particularly given the pedigree of the film’s director.
That said, there is still a lot here to enjoy and had Neeson not retracted his retirement earlier this year claiming it to be a joke, Memory would make for a perfect Logan-esque finale for the actor.
