A woman who can’t forget meets a man who can’t remember in Mexican director Michel Franco’s complex drama that’s equal parts dark, sad and hopeful. “Remembrance” is both a showcase of two magnificent performances and a complex meditation on how the past shapes the present. It is also a novel in which two damaged souls form an unlikely bond in the face of unresolved trauma and mental deterioration.
Care worker Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is a recovering alcoholic whose life revolves around work, sobriety and her teenage daughter Anna (Brooke Timber). When her high school reunion ends with her classmate following her home, her orderly existence is thrown into disarray.
The man she wakes up to find still lying on her doorstep is Saul (Peter Sarsgaard), a widower living with early-onset dementia who may or may not be one of the classmates who attacked Sylvia. when she was a teenager. An offer from Saul’s niece (Year 8 Elsie Fisher) to become his guardian could be Sylvia’s chance for revenge – if only she could be as confident in her memories as Saul is without his.
Chastain and Sarsgaard make a compelling duo in a film that—like Tim Roth’s Franco doubles before it, Chronicle and Sunset—is in no hurry to reveal its secrets. However, a stirring late confrontation between Sylvia and her estranged mother (Jessica Harper) provides some clarity, and the ending at least contains a glimmer of hard-won optimism.
Memento is now in US cinemas and in UK cinemas from 23 February.
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