Memory
Memory: Well over twenty years ago, to be precise back in 2000, Guy Pearce was Leonard, a man suffering from a severe form of amnesia, determined to avenge his wife killed at the hands of a mysterious murderer of whom there was no trace.
Located in a mind devoid of time coordinates, as well as Christopher Nolan's own direction, constantly fragmented in a puzzle of before and after, of reality and illusion, Memento has shown how the absence of memories can represent a starting point and an arrival of great fascination, especially in the thriller genre, so much so that today it tends to recur in various forms, although not always as the result obtained by Nolan.
This time, in fact, it is Liam Neeson who inherits the remains of that unforgettable character from Pearce, interpreting for Memory, a film directed by Martin Campbell, former director of Vertical Limit, Green Lantern, and Casino Royale, in cinemas from September 15, 2022, an elderly hitman from the first symptoms of Alzheimer's, a disease he shares with his older brother, who has closed a residence for the elderly for years.
Memory: the plot of the new (not memorable) action/thriller with Liam Neeson
Alex Lewis, as the contract killer is called, is about to indulge in a well-deserved 'retirement', but the unexpected arrival of one last job is about to change his life. The target is in fact a very young Mexican forced by her father into prostitution, a figure to be eliminated because she is now protected by the feds, whose task force led by agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pearce) is investigating a ruthless organization of human trafficking, in particular minors on the border between the United States and Mexico.
Determined to take revenge against the organization that hired him, Lewis begins a path of revenge and punishment, in an attempt to climb and reach the top of the same criminal structure, over which El Paso tycoon Davana Sealman (Monica Bellucci) stands undisturbed.
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Remake with stars and stripes of the Belgian "Memory of a Killer" (original title De zaak Alzheimer) by Erik Van Looy, in turn, based on the book of the same name by Jef Geeraerts, Memory transforms the Flemish settings of the film from which it is based by reshaping on that Mexican border, land of farewells, crime and political debate, its most suitable location.
Not always returned with the same realism seen in Sicario or in the less famous Bordertown, a detective story with Jennifer Lopez who investigated the disappearance of numerous women in El Paso, the frontier of Campbell's film is rather a reconstruction, a stage set up useful for carrying out the action, minus the palpable reference to the viewer of the perceived danger.
Memory forgets one detail: how it feels to forget
In Nesson the now no longer arduous task of holding the reins of a muscular and angry thriller, exploiting, albeit with some lines of weariness, his face wrinkled like an implacable criminal; however, this time humanized by a sort of affliction and suffering due to the now unstoppable progress of the disease, which confuses him and prevents him from remembering details and fundamental notions to the case.
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The aspect of mental emptiness, hinted at and not fully exploited by a screenplay that does not completely satisfy the tension and bewilderment felt by the protagonist, is disappointing, while the hand of director Campbell, who has been navigating for some time in the coordination of adrenaline-pumping scenes.
Less told but paradoxically more fascinating is instead the character of Guy Pearce, a charismatic interpreter able to always generate excellent performances, dragging his historian Leonard here for a punctual and rigorous role almost the opposite.
Fully inserted in the thick line of action/thrillers, this Memory does not add much to the genre of reference, sketching the question of the Mexican border spreading a lot of blood and little entertainment here and there, proving to be a mediocre film in which memory and its deceptions remain extremely collateral. instead of being protagonists.