Review of The Memory Thief (2007) by Klei R — 04 Jun 2009

This was kind of a hard movie to watch, and maybe even a harder movie to appreciate. The main problem I foresee from most people I know that watch movies is that you never really get a feel for why the main character does the things he does. You know he does them, but you know virtually nothing of his background tat would lead him down that road.

The movie starts with a kid that works at a toll booth in California. He seems somewhat disaffected by society, so maybe a toll booth is a good place for him to be. He seems to be looking for some meaning, and one day someone throws a copy of Main Kampf at him, and he starts reading it. A few days later, a Holocaust survivor argues with him and later gives him a tape of his testimony about his life.

This sets in motion most of the rest of the movie. Lukas (the main characters) finally finds something he thinks he can identify with - the suffering of Holocaust survivors. He takes a part time job transcribing testimonials, and later sits in as survivors are taped. Slowly, he gets more and more wrapped up in it, and eventually you start to wonder if he has all his marbles.

To be honest, one of the problems with this movie, and maybe one of the more effective parts of the acting is that I don't believe in real life, people would give this guy the time of day. He gives off a discernibly creepy vibe that I would think would be off-putting. Of course, it doesn't put people off in the movie until much later, but I guess that has to happen for the sake of the movie.

Anyway, the movie offers no answers as to why he does the things he does, other than you get the sense that Lukas was a damaged person from the start, only it took all movie for us as the audience to figure that out. It makes what happens at the beginning a little more creepy, which is, I'm guessing, the emotion we were supposed to get from this movie.