Jessica Chastain Plays Damaged Single Mother in ‘Memory’ Trailer

Etan Vlessing
·2 min read
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Jessica Chastain plays a social worker and single mother whose structured life is thrown into chaos when a young man dealing with dementia, played by Peter Sarsgaard, follows her home from their high school reunion in the trailer for Memory, which dropped Tuesday.

Michel Franco’s austere family drama about trauma and connection has Chastain playing Sylvia. Her regimented days at first revolve around her daughter, her job and her AA meetings, but are disrupted when the surprise encounter with Saul (Sarsgaard) opens a door to past memories and childhood experiences that surface like raw nerves.

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“Why did you follow me home from the party? Or do you only remember when it’s convenient,” an irritated Sylvia asks Saul at one point in the trailer, only to be frustratingly told he doesn’t remember. Saul’s dazed embarrassment as he suffers from dementia and emotional vulnerability while Sylvia cares for him during the day helped Sarsgaard earn the best actor prize after Memory had its world premiere in Venice.

Memory, written and directed by Franco, also stars Merritt Wever as Sylvia’s younger sister, Brooke Timber as daughter Anna, Jessica Harper as Sylvia’s estranged mother, Josh Charles as Saul’s protective brother and Elsie Fisher as his daughter.

The producer credits are shared by Eréndira Núñez Larios, Franco, Duncan Montgomery and Alex Orlovsky. Besides Memory, Chastain and Franco collaborated on Dreams, another feature shot last year in San Francisco under an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA during the Hollywood actors strike.

Dreams stars Chastain, along with Mexican ballet dancer and actor Isaac Hernandez and Rupert Friend, in a story of a possible forbidden romance between a woman, who works for an arts foundation, and a ballet dancer. Franco wrote the script and directed.

Ketchup Entertainment will release Memory on Dec. 22 in New York and Los Angeles, before a nationwide rollout Jan. 5.

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