Memory

Directed by Michel Franco, Memory details the unconventional relationship that ensues between Jessica Chastain’s emotionally-damaged Silvia and Peter Sarsgaard’s dementia-suffering Saul. It’s an intriguing premise that’s employed to increasingly tiresome and uninvolving effect by Franco, which is a shame, ultimately, given that the picture opens with a fair degree of promise and boasts a pair of typically terrific performances by Chastain and Sarsgaard – with the actors’ first-class efforts remaining a highlight within the otherwise lackluster proceedings. And while Franco does a relatively effective job of peppering the egregiously spare narrative with compelling moments, including (and especially) an intense sequence wherein Silvia confronts Saul over a supposed assault in high school, Memory segues into a momentum-free midsection containing one awkwardly-executed episode and encounter after another. (It almost feels as though the screenplay was written in an entirely different language and clumsily translated directly into English.) By the time the unconvincing, eye-rollingly upbeat finale rolls around, Memory has cemented its place as a complete misfire that feels so much longer than its 100 minutes.

* out of ****