Movies

At The Movies - Memory

19:30 pm on 12 October 2022

Memory is an unmemorable action film starring Liam Neeson as an ageing hitman with Alzheimer's. (Available on Amazon Prime)

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Northern Ireland's Liam Neeson was a serious actor - famously, a very serious actor - until 2008.

He'd played Oskar Schindler, Rob Roy, Michael Collins, Jean Valjean and looked like he'd keep playing those parts forever.

But then along came Taken and he found himself type-cast, playing a string of ageing hitmen with a very particular set of skills and a grudge.

You'd think there'd be a limit to the number of such stories - particularly starring someone nudging 70 now - but it seems not.

The hook of a Neeson thriller is usually that he's on the verge of retirement when something drags him back. A family member is kidnapped, or killed. In the case of Memory it's the promise of one last payday.

But the gimmick of Memory, as the title suggests, is that Alex isn't just an ageing hitman, he's actually suffering from early-onset dementia.

Not that it seems to stop him doing his job. He just drops his medication a lot.

Memory is directed by Kiwi director Martin Campbell, no stranger to movie hitmen. Campbell famously rebooted the ailing James Bond franchise - not just once but twice.

He launched Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye, and later Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's debut in the role. He's clearly got his own version of a license to kill.

In Memory, while Liam Neeson's Alex is trying to wind up his hitlist in Mexico, over the border an undercover cop called Vincent - Guy Pearce - is attempting to round up a child trafficking ring.

There's one witness left - a 13-year-old girl. Guess who's been hired by the bad guys to bump her off?

I say "bad guys", but in fact, the leader of the baddies is a slumming Monica Belluci - hey, a girl's gotta eat.

But she hasn't reckoned with the Hitman's Code - or at least, this hitman's code. Kids are off-limits.

But in the market-driven economy of bumping people off, if one hitman lets you down, you can always find another.

When Alex watches the TV news, he has a senior moment. Did he have a quiet night in, or did he change his mind and kill the kid after all?

When he realises it was someone else, he's infuriated - well, more infuriated than usual - and determined to hunt down the culprits.

Meanwhile, Vincent and his FBI crew are getting nowhere with their own investigation, until a mysterious chap with a Northern Irish accent rings, telling him to hurry up.

So now there's a race against time between the FBI, Alex and Alex's galloping Alzheimers. Added to the mix are corrupt cops getting in FBI Vincent's way and rival hitmen getting in hitman Alex's way.

Memory is actually based on a hit Belgian thriller. And clearly the Belgians like their thrillers brutal and uncomplicated.

Any subtleties of character have been sanded off - imagine a geriatric John Wicks movie - and once the story, or whatever it is, gets going it keeps going until journey's end.

So, not remotely subtle, but not particularly well-crafted either.

Once they run out of bad guys, that's the end. And, ironically or not - ten minutes after you've seen Memory, you'll have pretty much forgotten it, too.