Movie Review: Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard anchor ‘Memory,’ a thorny drama with a tender heart

Pain and trauma permeate Michel Franco’s new drama “Memory,” about two lost souls who find surprising comfort in one another

Pain and trauma permeate Michel Franco’s new drama “ Memory, ” about two lost souls who find surprising comfort in one another. Both Jessica Chastain’s Sylvia and Peter Sarsgaard’s Saul are hostage to their own minds, though in vastly different ways. Hers haunts her. His is failing rapidly. And neither are entirely trustworthy.

“Memory,” expanding nationwide Friday, starts as a seemingly standard issue “damaged person” movie, introducing Chastain’s Sylvia celebrating 12 years of sobriety at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that her 12-year-old attends with her. But there are layers to this dramatic mystery, compounded with unreliable narrators and moral grey areas. Before you know it, the film morphs from something familiar into something altogether unexpected.

Though it is not easily categorizable, “Memory” is a thoughtful journey featuring very fine performances from both Chastain and Sarsgaard, who was rewarded with the best actor prize from the Venice Film Festival last fall. While there are moments of levity to break up the anguish, it could also come with a laundry list of trigger warnings as it explores difficult subjects from sexual abuse to mental illness in pretty unsatisfactory ways. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the holidays are over because this is not one to watch with the family, especially if they’re harboring secrets of their own that have evolved into generational trauma.

The film binds you at first to Sylvia, a social worker and single mother who is suspicious of everything and everyone. She always seems ready to bolt for safety and survival. She lives by a strict routine: Walking her daughter, Anna (Brooke Timber), to school, going to work at an adult day care and her AA meetings. Home is a fortress: As soon as she steps into her downtrodden apartment, she's triple locking her door and punching in the security code to arm the place.

Even knowing her this little, it’s surprising that her younger sister Olivia (Merritt Wever) is able to convince her to tag along to a high school reunion kind of event early in the film. The decision seems even more unfathomable when you learn additional details about Sylvia’s school years, but it’s clear that she is uncomfortable and unhappy at the event, which she soon leaves.