Memory (2022)

Memory review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Memory could easily be misread or misremembered as Taken Part 4. It would even be forgivable if Memory was completely forgettable mere days after watching it. This has always been a problem with Liam Neeson and his many action movies where he always plays a hitman, thus leading to a lot of bleeding between roles. Remember that movie where Neeson had to stop terrorists on a plan? Was it called Non-Stop or The Commuter? Do you even recall? This is why its especially ironic that this is a film where Neeson’s character literally forgets what he’s doing. I almost wanted there to be a Taken-style reprisal of the infamous line where he spouts “I don’t know who you are…seriously, who are you?”

Neeson plays Alex, a hitman who is starting to experience memory loss with his condition. He’s still good at his job but is starting to lose track of things. After successfully murdering a target in a hospital, he panics for a moment in his car for forgetting his phone. He finds it safe and sound in his pocket but the writing is on the wall. He’s not long for this world and won’t be able to continue this line of work. It’s only a matter of time before he makes a bigger mistake and is gunned down.

Seeking some meaning to his life, Alex takes on a case of unearthing a child trafficking ring he stumbles across. The FBI is trying to investigate this matter as well but is dragging its heels as there is definite corruption in the ranks. So while the good FBI agents try to investigate in spite of the bad political figures working against them, Alex is one step ahead. As the FBI tracks down leads to bringing to justice, Alex has already murdered them with his efficient killings. Well, most of them are efficient. Sometimes he ends up hurting innocent people in his many shootouts. He also starts questioning his whereabouts as he slowly grows paranoid about who he has killed.

While all of this could be a strong staging for a psychological thriller, Memory diverts to being a bog-standard, procedural, routine, and ultimately boring thriller. We get a lot of scenes of FBI agents arriving late to a scene, cursing up a storm at the violence as they try to determine the next lead. Alex’s many assassinations are strictly by the book, where he leaves one killer alive long enough to question them and then kills them in a manner where he can blow them up and walk away from the explosion. Even the dialogue feels familiar to other Neeson movies, where the questioning and torture brought back memories of Taken. Given enough time, I’m sure many will start confusing these repeated tropes, turning Neeson’s filmography into a blurry stew of action pictures that all look alike.

Memory is sure to leave your own memory for how dreary it becomes. There are hints of a better movie peppered in here and there. If only the film could expand on its elements rather than be another movie that seems more concerned with staging assassinations decently than evoking a story more profound. Even the climax holds little appeal by essentially suggesting that the only way to fight corruption is to harbor more corruption and just kill your superiors. That may be satisfying for a standard revenge thriller but it’s so tedious if you’ve been on this ride many times before and grow tired of the on-cue theatrics.