Every year there’s at least one film that premieres at the fall festival circuit without distribution and then does a last-minute jump into the impending awards season. 2023’s major entry in this category is Michel Franco’s drama Memory, starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, which premiered at Venice and TIFF. It was subsequently picked up by Ketchup Entertainment, who previously released the Ben Affleck-led Hypnotic this past summer, and ahead of a December 22 release, the first trailer has arrived.
David Katz said in his review, “Memory hands Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard (deserved winner of the Venice competition’s acting prize) gifts of roles, in a love story whose exact contours it’s tempting to keep concealed. Franco definitely operates with the element of surprise, having tricked viewers sitting down to (for instance) Sundown of his attractive leads Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s exact relationship. Chastain plays Sylvia, who works as a social worker––she bluntly puts it herself: she’s employed at an “adult daycare center”––somewhere in an outer New York borough. She keeps an ascetic, spartan life with her beloved daughter Anna (Brooke Timber), always avoiding unnecessary social contact whilst aggressively monitoring her movements. More is revealed, but Sylvia’s past as a severe alcoholic, in light of which she dedicatedly attends AA meetings (shown in the opening scene, with non-professionals filling out background roles), clearly determines current life choices.”
Watch the trailer and poster below.
Memory opens on December 22.