Memory (3½ Stars)

Amazon Friday #29

This is a remake of a 2003 Belgian film called "The Alzheimer Case". It follows Alex Lewis, who was formerly a highly skilled hitman, but is now suffering from the initial stages of Alzheimer's.

The hitman, played by Liam Neeson, is an American who works for Mexican crime syndicates. He assassinates businessmen and politicians on both sides of the Mexico-America border. One of the people he works for is Davana Sealman, a highly respected businesswoman in America who's also the head of a people trafficking ring. She arranges for Mexican girls as young as 13 to be smuggled into America to work as prostitutes for exclusive clients. This also allows her to blackmail the clients into giving her better business deals.

When Alex is sent to murder a 13-year-old girl called Beatriz, the witness to a murder, he flips. He's killed many people over the years, but he refuses to kill children. That's a line he won't cross. After he refuses to kill her, she's murdered by someone else. Alex know he doesn't have long to live, so he decides to spend his last months avenging Beatriz, killing everyone who was directly or indirectly involved in her death, up to Davana Sealman herself.

In the process, Alex confronts an FBI agent called Vincent Serra who's spent almost a year trying to get evidence against the people trafficking ring. Vincent does everything by the book, so he's slow. Alex tells him that the case will quickly be closed when he kills the heads of the ring. Will Vincent arrest Alex or step back and let him kill the guilty ones? It's not an easy choice for an agent who despises the exploitation of young girls.

Liam Neeson is a spectacular action hero, but I don't like films that feature dementia, even in mild forms. In the overall plot the Alzheimer's disease is irrelevant. It could have been omitted, and the film would have been just as good, in my opinion even better.

Success Rate:  - 2.2

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