Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) lives behind an exceptionally well-locked door.
As a woman living alone with a teenage daughter, perhaps she has her reasons.
One look at her tells you shes haunted.
Peter Sarsgaard and Jessica Chastain in ‘Memory’The Match Factory
The man under the plastic bag is Saul (Peter Sarsgaard).
She thinks she remembers him from school; she thinks he was one of her tormentors.
Would she consider it?
What she doesnt admit is her own burden of trauma or that she is a recovering alcoholic.
Thirteen years sober, but addiction like the past is never over.
Perhaps it is Sylvia whose memory has failed her.
Which makes Sauls brother, for whom he has ostensibly been such a burden, furious beyond words.
She never will forget or forgive her mothers refusal to believe her when she told her she was abused.
Within her family, she was cast first as the troublemaker, then as the failure.
She is still a failure.
He doesnt approve of his sister-in-law; essentially, he doesnt approve of anything that makes him uncomfortable.
When his own children ask why Sylvia never drinks, he shuts down her answer.
There will be no talk about alcoholism in this house, he orders.
There is a large glass of wine in his hand.
There are subjects a great many subjects, as it turns out that should be left alone.
His scalpel never misses.
Franco has been working this dramatic seam, always with exemplary actors, for years.
He is a fixture on the festival circuit, with good reason.
His films get small releases, smaller than they deserve.
PerhapsMemoryis the film that will bring him to a broader public.
