By

Remember

Perplexing yet engaging revenge potboiler

A 90-year-old man with memory problems is tasked by a wheelchair-bound but still mentally sharp fellow Holocaust survivor to locate and punish the sadistic Auschwitz prison guard responsible for the deaths of both their families. Atom Egoyan’s thought-provoking but increasingly preposterous revenge potboiler is hardly on the same level as his The Sweet Hereafter or Exotica, but it may signal an end to his creative slump. I absolutely did not see coming the very strange third-act payoff. Bottom line: frequently flawed but still a must-see for the masterful lead performance by the great Christopher Plummer.
Japanese title: Tegami wo oboeteiru. (94 min)