By John Corrado

The title of Memory, the latest film from Mexican writer-director Michel Franco, takes on a few different meanings throughout the course of this tender, stripped down character drama.

It refers to repressed memories and the lingering impacts of childhood trauma that Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) carries with her every day, as well as the memories that Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) is losing due to early onset dementia.

Sylvia is a social worker and recovering alcoholic, raising her teenage daughter Anna (Brooke Timber) on her own in New York City. Saul is a man that she vaguely remembers from school who follows her home one night after their high school reunion.

This is no “meet cute,” but something stranger and sadder that Sylvia initially interprets as potentially sinister. Franco’s film explores the bond that forms between Sylvia and Saul after some initial confusion between them. Saul is a man terrified of losing his identity, which Sylvia had stripped from her years earlier. She is looking for someone she can feel safe around. He is looking to hold on to his having his own agency over his life.

The film has a raw, sometimes messy quality to it in terms of how it addresses themes of PTSD and sexual abuse, but it’s not hard to see this as Franco’s intention. This is a stripped bare drama, that is unafraid of going to some uncomfortable places both thematically and emotionally. The film is held together by a pair of immensely touching performances by Chastain and Sarsgaard.

Sylvia shows kindness and patience in her work with developmentally disabled adults (the character works at Fineson House, a real place in New York, with the actual residents appearing in the film), but Chastain also compellingly portrays the character’s deep vulnerability. Sarsgaard (who won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice) is heartbreaking as a man who recognizes that his memory is fading long before his time, but isn’t ready to give up his independence.

This isn’t a flashy film. It mostly unfolds in static master shots captured by Belgian cinematographer and frequent Franco collaborator Yves Cape, the camera simply observing the character interactions as they play out. Franco’s style could be described as cold or detached, but here he uses it to plumb emotional depths. It’s an interesting, understated approach for a film that could have easily become heightened melodrama, and Memory is all the more impactful for it.

There is no score and any music is diegetic, including several wonderful uses of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” which provides a form of stability for Saul as a familiar tune that is sometimes comforting and sometimes sad. And we might never hear it the same way again. The song’s usage helps define Franco’s film, as the powerful performances of Chastain and Sarsgaard allow it to linger in the mind afterwards.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Memory opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on January 19th. It’s being distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.