Rememory Movie Review

Rememory (2017)

Rent Rememory on Amazon video
Written by: Mike Vukadinovich, Mark Palansky
Directed by: Mark Palansky
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Martin Donovan, Henry Ian Cusick, Anton Yelchin, Julia Ormond
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
When scientist Gordon Dunn dies mysteriously after inventing a device that can record and play back people's memories, guilt-ridden Sam Bloom steals the machine hoping to find closure for causing his brother's death and to find Dunn's killer.

Verdict
This is a boilerplate murder mystery that introduces a memory machine but fails to capitalize on how that would alter the story. This makes the machine feel like an afterthought as this doesn't even attempt to investigate the difference between perception versus reality. Contrivances abound and the reveal towards the end is just annoying. Maybe there's a way to make this decent, but it would need a ground up revision of the script.
Skip it.

Review
Peter Dinklage is great as always, but this movie leaves a lot to be desired. I expected a serviceable movie, nothing great. I was surprised at how bland the movie is. This type of story has been done better. Final Cut (2004) with Robin Williams has a similar theme and even Black Mirror's The Entire History of You and Crocodile explore memories in depth. The Entire History of You is the greatest single episode of television I've ever seen (read my review). This concept has been done better and Black Mirror explores concepts so thoroughly that it makes this movie look like a mess. I didn't expect that kind of quality from Rememory, but the movie treats memories like a snapshot. Bloom might as well be using video recordings to investigate a murder. 

How we remember memories and what exactly happened don't always match. Just the act of accessing a memory can alter it. Emotions change perception. In Rememory Sam Bloom's recollection lines up exactly with the recording. I was hoping a twist is that the memory machine records the memories as we remember them, not how they actually are. That's not the case. We're told all our memories are stored in the mind, all the details. This machine allows us to go back and explore them. There is no dissonance.

For the first act of the movie, I was trying to figure out how Sam Bloom fits into this. Why is he investigating the doctor's murder? I did't know if I blinked and missed an important plot point, but I'm going to attribute this failing to the movie. It just doesn't set that part up well. Part of it may be Sam wanting to use the machine to revisit the events of his brother's death, but that isn't exactly credible either.
What do Sam's models matter? He's a model maker, which interesting, matters very little. He paints scaled models of the his suspects for no real reason. Even the way Sam gets the machine is contrived. None of the doctor's coworkers thought to check the doctor's ex-wife's house?

The memory machine should have a big impact, but these memories have meaning only because we're told they do. I just watched a Coca-Cola commercial that exuded more emotional connection and it was a minute thirty long.
This doesn't look at how two people may remember something differently. We can fool ourselves, but this movie doesn't think so. This murder mystery used memories as clues without even considering that could be dangerous and lead to flat out wrong conclusions. If you remove the machine, this is a boring mystery. Adding the machine gives this potential to be interesting, but that isn't the result. The machine is the glue that holds the story together but it's spread too thin. Nothing really matters, not the characters, not the side effects from the machine.

I'd say this is a good idea with poor execution, but there are too many similar properties that have done this idea well. Sam wanted closure, but instead he discovers he's liable for even more tragedy. There's an interesting thread in that, where Sam could be responsible for his own guilt and it's resolution, at least the attempt to resolve it but I'm giving the movie too much credit.