Memoria

This movie is very hard to watch and requires much patience. If you can connect with the movie, it will make it easier to watch. There are very long and still sequences. From the beginning to the end of the film, confusion prevails. We cant really understand what is happening. Nothing is clear. And the movie does not give us many answers. This is a "feel" movie. If you cant connect with the characters or the storyline it will be a disappointing experience for you.

In "Memoria" Tilda Swinton plays Jessica Holland, an expat woman from Scotland who lives in Medellín and is in the market-gardening business. One night, Jessica is awoken from a sleep by a strange bang, like a sonic boom. This is the long version of the movie. The short version is "what did I just watch?" If they had made a short movie (35 minutes), you would still ask the same question. This is by far the slowest movie I have ever seen and then having to admit I still did not understand the plot? Or was there no plot? Was there even a movie? So many questions that might never be answered. This movie left me behind feeling very frustrated. It might have been a masterpiece or just the opposite. But if I have to stare at trees, roads, the sky etc for at least 75% of the movie, I fall asleep. There is one thing that is very good about this movie, and that is the always wonderful acting Tilda. Without her, this movie would not even exist. This is the trick, use Tilda and some people might actually come and see the movie of my twisted "Memoria". And the only good scene was when Jessica was visiting the doctor. She was trying to ask Xanax but had to struggle to get a prescription because Xanax is addictive! And this is happening in Medellin, once the cocaine capital of the world...

To me this is the main issue with Memoria. For example, the IMDB question about spoilers is not even needed, there can be basically no spoilers when reviewing this film, since the "narrative" (can't really call it that) is fragmented and merely the pretext for the reflections the movie undertakes on several clever memory-related topics (notably the reality of recollection), from the simple perspective of the experiences concerning a single human individual, to the collective thoughts of a society as a whole. In that vein the characters and some movie conventions (the classical journey of the main character, although we are never sure what it exactly is) are used as a sort of vessels.

As long as that is accepted I found that most of my criticism (which would put me firmly on the side of "bad" reviewers) fell off the wayside, and I enjoyed this beautifully shot contemplative piece for what it was.

But why didn't I rate it higher? Frankly because I was underwhelmed with the meditation itself or the tropes enveloping it (as I saw them), finding some of them trite and even ridiculous. Meditation around different issues comes also from some sort of familiarity, and I was not convinced that the filmmaker was not merely a tourist in this universe, rather than someone with a particularly deep insight.

This sort of approach is, of course, totally acceptable, just not something I could relate to here, as I could in other films he has done. And thus issues such the length of the film (as well as some of the sequences) became a problem, which would not have been the case had I felt fully in sync with the piece.

A woman hears noises. The audience will hear the noises, too. The woman jumps when she hears the noises. So too might the audience. She wants to find out what the noises are. We're along for the ride, trying to understand her journey as best we can...

Memoria is a film that's very, very different. Mostly, it's unique in a good way, but it is a challenging watch and if you're like me, you might come out of it not knowing exactly what you just saw... but hopefully, you'll appreciate how it made you feel.

I read this was only ever going to be shown theatrically, and that it would never get a streaming release or be released on DVD/Bluray. I thought that sounded pretentious, but now after seeing the film, if they stick with that plan, I understand why. Memoria is a quiet and sometimes deathly still film. I don't know if most people (myself included) would be able to concentrate on it completely if they were at home, and had mobile phones and the like as distractions.

This becomes clearest in the second half, which warps and seemingly deconstructs time itself as you're watching it. I know how pretentious that sounds. But approximately the last half is one long sequence that is slow in a way that's kind of awe-inspiring. And I can only estimate that this concluding chunk of the film was one half of it. It may have been more like 70 minutes. It could've been as short as half an hour.

With no clear narrative or structure, you're left no choice but focus intently in on what is (or isn't?) happening. It ends up being hypnotic. Some people were audibly relieved when it was over. I'd be lying if I said I was riveted the whole time, but I was too impressed with how Memoria as a whole felt to watch unfold to say it came anywhere close to being a waste of time.

Tilda Swindon deserves praise, too. I think the film asks a lot of her, and asks her to do it all subtly, too. She gives a great performance, and one that I don't think many others could do. Overall, this is a very slow and perplexing film, but I can't call it boring, and because of the unique experience it provided, I wouldn't call it frustrating or pretentious, either. It's absolutely worth 137 minutes of your attention, as long as you're mostly onboard with seeing something out there, and one that seeks to give you a unique film-watching experience more than it gives you a traditional narrative, or any easy answers.

Jessica, played by the ever excellent Tilda Swinton, plays a botanist, living in Colombia, plagued by a booming sound which apparently only she can hear. She visits Hernan, a sound engineer, who helps her recreate the sound and seemingly smitten with her, they plan a trip together to the country. He though suddenly disappears as if he never existed and she travels alone and meets an older man called Hernan and he helps her unravel the meaning of the sound.

To be clear, this is a film you will either love or hate. It is very slow and for each scene the camera sticks rigidly on the action, conversation etc, which are typically very slight. In addition, the mystery you are presented here is not going to be neatly unlocked and explained to you, leaving it open to your own interpretation. I found the whole thing quite hypnotic and if you watch it quietly alone, it could easily be used a form of spiritual relaxation. It seemed to me that this is apparently all to do with certain people being able to pick up various memories, not just their own, across dimensions of time / space, but I may be way off. Dim the lights and enjoy though.