Is Memories with Jessica Chastain a good movie? What did the first viewers think?

Two years after sunset, Mexican film director and screenwriter Michel Franco returns with a memory. Shot in New York, this drama stars Jessica Chastain, set two years after Armageddon on the big screen, Peter Sarsgaard and Brooke Timbers.

The film follows Sylvia, a woman who leads a simple life structured around her daughter, work and AA meetings. However, her reunion with Saul turns their lives upside down, reawakening painful memories that had previously been buried.

Presented at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, Winning Memory Peter Sarsgaard Volpe Trophy for Best Male Performance.

What do early viewers think? memory ? At the time of writing, the feature film has an average press and audience rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars. Memory has 113 ratings and 22 netizens have written a review and 19 have rated the movie at least 3 stars.

They liked it

Ombeline Marchon gives it the highest score and writes: “An exciting film, great delicacy and intense emotion, which slowly weaves its story with hints. We don’t necessarily know where the truth ultimately lies, but we sense that the two heroes will be limping along, lost and in pain. The film always remains modest, restrained, leaving emotions without violins, without stylistic effects. As the end credits roll, tears well up and well up inside you as the weight of what you’re seeing, or what’s not being said on screen, is lifted. For example, in Babila, by Iñárritu. A very good, very beautiful film, by an impeccable Jessica Chastain.“

For Laurent Stéphane B: “This film is a gem made with tenderness and precision. Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard glow with melancholy. My best movie since early 2024.”

Diseus writes:moving film. The actors are so annoying. I liked it very much. Jessica Chastain also deserved an award in Venice.

Gaby C gives a rating of 4/8 and writes: “An inspiring film. You think you know what to expect at the beginning, but you don’t at the end. A well-executed production. A very well-crafted script and very good actors; a standing ovation for Peter Sarsgaard, whose performance is awe-inspiring.”

According to Jérôme Sdc: “An excellent tragi-comedy by the hand of a master; a very well-crafted script that leaves the audience awake and discovering the drama, all very well (and sometimes glacially) by all the actors, great cinematography, not far off. A legendary fest.”

They liked it less

Joce2012 rates the film 3.5 and explains:It’s a somewhat difficult film because it deals with two very difficult but different subjects, the plot is a bit confusing.”

Selenie from Club AlloCiné gives the film 3/5 and writes: “The beginning is very academic, a classic and widespread meeting of the famous Alcoholics Anonymous in American cinema before meeting a man who above all raises questions to which we will never have answers…

The plot and character development isn’t very convincing, or in any case it didn’t work well enough. Therefore, the connection aggression + alcoholism is not at all convincing, the second parameter is ultimately quite superfluous and only serves to add pathos to the melodrama (or vice versa!), because the subject really remains a memory. The exciting title is simple and sober, just like the film.

On the other hand, the script is very well written, relevant in substance, only in form. However, the extreme vigilance throughout the film gives two small problems, a rather monotonous rhythm and the protagonists with an amazing self-control that seems almost surreal when we are talking about amnesia or dementia. In the end, if it lacks intensity, it remains a beautiful love story, almost unbelievable but believable and touching, between two broken souls.”

According to No Quarter: “The film’s rather heavy subject matter is not revealed until quite late in the narrative. Which makes the first half hour a bit dull and heavy. Then we know roughly where we are, but we don’t know where we’re going. Despite the performances of Chastain, Sarsgaard and Timber, the director’s point of view remains unclear. The atmosphere is quite well represented, but it lacks a little intensity to give us a vibe.”

For Michael D: “A good script, the actors are in a state of thanks, what is not working? Perhaps too much confidence is ahead and, above all, slow staging, in long fixed shots, useless, repetitive gestures and scenes, heavy silence, without any tension or idea of ​​​​cinema.

Which strips the film of all stakes, all emotion, which is a shame given the subject matter. A bit like the director didn’t want to get his hands too dirty. On arrival, a long and slow catalog of traumas of all kinds – today’s world seems to be reduced to this. At least I’ll keep a powerful scene of family explanation and an unpredictable shot from the monotony.“

memory Must see in cinema.