Memory

In Martin Campbell’s unpleasant and clunky thriller, Liam Neeson finds himself up against the police, the FBI, a crime syndicate and Alzheimer’s.

Still Liam

Liam Neeson has had mental issues in the past. In Jaume Collet-Serra’s Unknown (2011) he played Martin Harris, an American botanist who forgets his briefcase at the airport. When Dr Harris returns to the hotel, he is convinced that Diane Kruger is his wife, although she appears to be married to another man. As an amnesiac botanist running around Europe, Neeson provided some gravitas and, while familiar, Unknown had an intriguing air.  

Unfortunately, Memory is no such fun, partly because its title and its premise is a red herring. For most of the movie, Liam Neeson’s hitman does just fine, thank you very much. In the tradition of many a cinematic one-man army, Liam’s Lewis prompts a top cop to demand, rhetorically perhaps, “who is this fucking guy?”

This fucking guy is a geriatric assassin with Alzheimer’s limping around El Paso in Texas, artfully side-stepping the FBI, the police and some very nasty Mexican heavies – the usual opposition forces that Neeson faces in such improbable scenarios. Of course, Alex Lewis (Neeson) refuses his last hit but, as an accomplice (Lee Boardman) tells him, “Men like us don’t retire.” Nope, they just recycle their old moves in new clothes.

Now that Liam Neeson is in his seventies, he is too old to have a leading lady half his age, so the plot spins round a child prostitution racket in order to add a degree of misogynistic titillation. Still, the star does get to sleep with Stella Stocker, who is about half his age, although she doesn’t last long (he picks her up at a bar, after braining a predatory drunk who has tried to pick her up). But because Alex Lewis is played by Liam Neeson, Lewis refuses to terminate a 13-year-old witness (Mia Sanchez), just moments after he has spotted her child-like drawings scattered around her bedroom. Now Lewis is on the run for this dereliction of duty and is being chased all over by just about everybody. And even though in the last stages of the movie he develops a mumble, his muscle memory certainly doesn’t let him down.

As a homage to that great film about amnesia, Memento, the producers have drafted in the star of the latter, Guy Pearce, who plays a Fed on Liam’s case. Like the guy with Alzheimer’s, Guy strongly disapproves of child prostitution and so an invisible bond develops between the hunter and the hunted. As Guy’s FBI partner, Taj Atwal is spectacularly wasted, with little to do than look pretty and try on a variety of fluctuating accents. At times she sounds American, then Mexican, then Mancunian (Ms Atwal comes from Yorkshire by way of Norwich). Still, she’s much better than Monica Bellucci, who seems to be having trouble remembering her lines.

While Memory manages to be simultaneously unpleasant and uninteresting, it might have improved with a dash of black comedy. It is a remake of the 2003 Belgian thriller The Alzheimer Case, which was submitted to the American Academy as a contender for best foreign-language film (Spain’s The Sea Inside won that year). As it is, Memory is formulaic and plodding, an actioner in which the bad guys are unkempt and rude (and who smoke), duly qualifying themselves for assassination. Lacking vitality and freshness, the film feels like it is directed by a man even older than Mr Neeson, which it is. Martin Campbell, 78, directed such high stakes action fare as GoldenEye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006), but appears to have learned no new tricks along the way.

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Liam Neeson, Guy Pearce, Monica Bellucci, Taj Atwal, Ray Fearon, Ray Stevenson, Antonio Jaramillo, Daniel De Bourg, Scot Williams, Mia Sanchez, Harold Torres, Doug Rao, Lee Boardman, Stella Stocker, Louis Mandylor. 

Dir Martin Campbell, Pro Cathy Schulman, Moshe Diamant, Rupert Maconick, Michael Heimler and Arthur Sarkissian, Screenplay Dario Scardapane, Ph David Tattersall, Pro Des Kes Bonnet and Wolf Kroeger, Ed Jo Francis, Music Rupert Parkes, Costumes Irina Kotcheva, Sound Ryan Nowak, Dialect coach Florentina French Olivera. 

Black Bear Pictures/Welle Entertainment/Saville Productions-Amazon Media.
113 mins. USA. 2021. US Rel: 29 April 2022. UK Rel: August 2022 – on Amazon Prime. Cert. 18.