Behind its technological magic, Rememory (2017) is a whodunit murder mystery, but rather than collecting physical clues and speculating on the motives of the potential criminals, professional model builder Sam Bloom is pursuing their very memories. He once met famous psychologist / neurologist Gordon Dunn at a hotel, on a very dark night of his soul, and Dunn had helped him get through that night. Now Dunn lies dead in Dunn’s office on the eve of the product launch of a machine which can harvest and display memories, unredacted by time, from people, with bullet-holes in the wall behind him, and the only working production model missing. The company he founded wants it because they cannot produce more of the machines without seeing this production model.
Sam needs it to solve the murder and repay Dunn’s kindness. Perhaps the widow could gain him access, so he visits the widow, expecting to find the wake, but instead, just her. He tells her parts of his story, and steals the key to the house. When he returns, he finds the machine, and a pile of memories – and he’s off to the races.
This is well-constructed, for the most part. Characters who appear to be one thing are another, everyone has a motive, yet doesn’t do it. The role memory plays in our lives is simplified, and then that simplification vilified, but this perhaps could have been better emphasized if the corporation, or corporate officers, had played a bigger role in the story.
That leads to one of the weaknesses of the movie: the corporation. There are hints that the corporate officers are desperate to bring their product to market, but they are never fleshed out, nor is that desperation illustrated in any meaningful way. Why not? Properly utilized, they could have brought even more pressure to bear on Sam Bloom, a man who bears a resemblance to the detective Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Spade becomes emotionally involved in his work to an extent that he’s endangering his case and himself, and that made him, and the audience, blind to critical clues. Bloom’s involvement isn’t just as a posthumous thank you for help he once received, but becomes something far more devious. The additional pressure the corporate officers could have brought to bear would have increased the tension, and perhaps led to even stronger revelations in the plot twist at the end. As it is, the ending feels like it was dragged out too long. Yes, it’s a surprise, yet it could have been more.
I think this is a sober, serious work, and we were hooked from the beginning. It’s not an action movie, nor any of the trends of the moment, really. If you’re in the mood, there’s a lot to like in this story. I just wish they’d taken it a step further.
