Memory – A Messy Film to Match a Messy Premise (Early Review)

Liam Neeson led action films have essentially become their own genre. After so many within a relatively short period of time, one can’t help but notice the same conventions and quirks more or less repeated over and over again so much so that all these films start to feel the same. That being said, in spite of that, the genre continues to find enough success to warrant more and more films. Nevertheless, Neeson is getting up there in age and it shows as he is merely going through the motions at this point while surviving on screen presence alone. When it comes to Memory, all of this remains to be the case for better or worse. Ultimately, the film does just enough to stand out from the rest albeit slightly thanks to an admittedly interesting premise. That premise is squandered at the end of the day by a derivative script and a dull and meandering story that leads to a longer running time than it had any right to have, almost touching the 2 hour mark.

Memory, based on a 2003 Belgian film called The Memory of a Killer, follows a skilled assassin named Alex Lewis (Neeson) guided by a particular code but that code would be challenged by his latest job. Objecting against one of the targets, he then set out on a mission to eliminate the forces who hired him before they and/or the FBI got to him first. The big quirk this time around is that Lewis is also losing his memory on top of everything else. However, this did not present as much of a challenge as the film’s marketing perhaps made it out to be. Instead, the film relies on a dull conspiracy angle for Lewis and FBI agent Vincent Serra (Pearce) to uncover before it was too late. Coming at the same goal from different sides of the law, the two men unsurprisingly took it personally. What was a fun cat and mouse game between the two dissipated quickly as the conspiracy angle took over for the most part.

Suffice it to say that the conspiracy angle doesn’t really tread any new ground as Lewis and Serra each fight to make sense of all of the pieces involved. Uninspired and dull to watch as the film meanders its way through as it did next to nothing with those pieces, audiences are given little reason to care about anything. A mess that was more of a character piece than an action film but thin at both, it simply failed to generate enough excitement to sustain its overlong running time. Though this genre has never been known for its depth, Memory still needed at least some semblance of depth in order to create some engagement. As all the subplots inevitably collided, the story seemed incapable at handling them at all, fumbling its way to a dud of an ending that lacked any kind of impact whatsoever.

The best part of Memory, just like many of the films in the same subgenre, was Neeson himself as Lewis. Going though the motions once again as yet another subtle variation of the same character he has done to death, it somehow still works just enough to get by. Regarding the premise, Neeson’s take was at least interesting but it was just a shame that the film did not appear interested in doing very much with it. Meanwhile, his decent chemistry with Pearce’s Serra made that dynamic somewhat fun to watch though again, the film did not do much with that either.

Overall, Memory is simply another forgettable entry in the action filmography of Liam Neeson or at least until it randomly shows up on television.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.