This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.About midway through Memory, the latest drama from writer-director Michel Franco that stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, there is a moment that lightly calls attention to how much time seems to have passed. In any other film, such a scene would be part of the natural way a filmmaker would keep their audience up to speed about the scope of the story. For Franco, it only brings attention to how almost unbound by time the story is. Both in joy and in pain, days can begin to fade into one another. That this film is then titled Memory, not to be confused with the terrible Liam Neeson action movie from last year, is merely one way that it pushes us to reflect on time. As its two central characters try to make sense of their painful past in increasingly unexpected yet uniquely potent ways, we are drawn into a world so completely that you can only give yourself over to the delicate rhythm it settles into.

This all begins with intimate close-ups of various people doing recollections of their own at an AA meeting. They are all there to talk about Sylvia (Chastain) who has made being a part of the group a foundational component of her life. When not there, she relies on order and structure as much as she can. She works as a social worker and as a mother to her daughter Anna, played with a quiet authenticity by Brooke Timber in her feature debut, while keeping mostly to herself. The only exception Sylvia makes is her sister Olivia, played by the always magnificent Merritt Wever of the recent underseen film Midday Black Midnight Blue, who also helps to look after Anna. When the sisters go to their high school reunion, the film’s exploration begins in earnest. It is there that Sylvia, who was already clearly not particularly enjoying herself, meets Saul (Sarsgaard) who sits down at the same table with her. No words are exchanged, and she proceeds to immediately get up to go home. When he follows her, the unavoidable tension she feels over this act gives way to concern when he sleeps outside in the rain. The next morning, she calls to get him help while still keeping her distance from him. Following this, we learn that Saul has dementia and has been prone to confusion in his life.

Franco Offers No Easy Answers in ‘Memory’

While this clarity over Saul’s mind helps us to understand how he came to be outside Sylvia’s apartment, there is still much that we don’t know about his past. At one point, when the two later go on what seems like a tranquil walk in the park, she confronts him in more detail about why he followed her and makes clear she believes that they do share a painful past together. Though it is the first time of many that we hear Sylvia fully talk about an instance of past abuse, it is clear that she has been carrying this with her for quite a while. Saul seems confused and can’t offer any good answers to her questions, leaving us to sit with the possibility that he may have done something that he now cannot recollect. It is mighty shaky narrative ground that Franco puts us on for a bit, which feels like it could almost spiral out of his control, but the subsequent path it takes from there forward is where the film settles into something more unexpectedly moving. While not cheesily hopeful, as there is still plenty of pain it draws out, the film charts a complicated path towards some semblance of healing.

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One almost throwaway observation that Saul shared before the big initial conversation the two had in the park then takes on a grander importance in the rest of the film to come. The strangers had both been to this park before in their respective pasts, but they’ve now each noticed that it has fallen into disrepair over the years. When Saul points out that this is because there has been nobody to take care of it, he’s no longer just talking about the park. Each of them, in their own way, has been left adrift in life. Sylvia’s mother never believed her about the abuse that happened, leaving her to deal with this trauma nearly all on her own. Saul similarly has a few people around in his life, namely his brother, but that is cold comfort when he is essentially locked away at home while his mind continues to deteriorate. Franco shoots this with a formal patience and lack of showiness that works to authentically immerse you in the feelings of the characters as we just get to see little details of each of their lives. It feels reminiscent of his last feature Sundown even if it isn’t quite as comprehensively arresting as that was. What makes it still shattering are the powerful performances that lay you flat.

Chastain and Sarsgaard Are Outstanding in ‘Memory’
If a film like this were to have anything less than perfection from its leads, it would likely fall to pieces. Thankfully, the story comes to life in the hands of two veteran performers at their very best. Both Chastain and Sarsgaard create moments where they tear through the very soul. Everything they do feels completely and utterly transcendent, pulling us right up into the many agonies at the core of the film even as Franco keeps us at a bit of distance. Nothing is wasted with a couple of key scenes the two get apart towards the end where you feel every single emotion that has been finally allowed to burst free. It is the type of film that can come awfully close to breaking apart, but that only makes it all the more magnificent to see it hold together.

Rating: B+

The Big Picture

Michel Franco’s Memory finds joy and pain in the life of two strangers who have been left adrift in a harsh world. Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard are each outstanding, creating transcendent moments that tear through the soul of the film. Even as it comes close to breaking apart, it manages to hold together with a couple of key moments towards the end that lay you completely flat.

Memory had its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.