CHASTAIN MASKS UP, AGAIN

TIME SPENT FORGOTTEN FOR REASON OR OTHER

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Director Michel Franco follows the human survival instincts that blot out time to make memory often an illusive ethereal part of humanity.

The lead characters have compelling backstories, that go untold for the most part, to create the necessary suspense for driving the narrative forward in Memory (2023)

Franco casts Jessica Chastain as the lead character while Peter Sarsgaard costars in a supporting role.

Chastain plays Sylvia, a social worker at an adult daycare, while Sarsgaard plays Saul, an adult with early onset dementia still living independently with the help of support workers.

Franco uses realism to tell the story but then creates dark scenes full of shadows and ghosts. While the plot is set in New York City, most of the story becomes told inside the homes and workplaces of the characters.

Early on, the director foretells the existence of a backstory by zooming the camera into Sylvia’s AA meeting. Syliva must defend herself much later in the narrative by telling a room full of family and friends that she has been sober for 13 years.

Franco leaves Saul’s backstory only partially told while creating doubt that he has dementia as apposed to selective memory caused by the mind choosing not to remember traumatic events to which he may or may not have been culpable.

The storyline is interesting enough without a lot of action, although the characters do get into it eventually.

Sarsgaard delivers his usual necessary and sufficient character performance with the distinguishing feature this time around being the character’s dementia.

Initially, Sylvia and Saul have a lot of negative energy between the two of them. But Sylvia works through a bit of baggage carried around from childhood while gradually, ever so delicately, accepting Saul with all his imperfections.

Chastain shows a great range as an actor by revealing different emotions one after another as if she peels back layers until getting into the very thick of the matter.

Sylvia has been scarred by past trauma, but she copes with her past by walking through life wearing a fake façade of peace and tranquility.

Dysfunction follows the camera around until family and friends open the compartmentalized boxes.

Sylvia of course has issues with her mother, while Saul’s life course still seems spun around by sibling rivalry.

The script explains away familial dysfunction while ending with a lot to say about family, friends and love.