Marjorie Prime 2017

     Marjorie is 86 years old and she is forgetting some of her memories.  She has a companion who looks just like her husband when he was younger.  Walter has passed away and an artificial intelligence is helping Marjorie remember periods of her life.  Her daughter Tess and her husband Jon live with Marjorie.  She also has a caretaker Julie.  There is sometimes conflict between Marjorie and Tess as mother and daughter.  Jon seems more level headed with his emotions but he consumes too much alcohol. 

     I knew this film was based on a stage play because of the feel and the pacing.  A lot of times I don’t like a film based on a play because I think there is too much static time.  I did like the subject of this film and it was an interesting and different concept.  There is a line in the film spoken by Geena Davis as the character Tess, the daughter of Marjorie.  She states that "memories begin to fade soon after they happen to a person?"  I wonder at the validity of this statement?  I think memories remembered often become stronger the more times you remember them.  I also think this memory becomes stronger when you talk to others about your memory.  Essentially, you are reliving the memory and this moves it closer to the present from where it had been stored in the past.  3* (This movie is OK)    

99 min, Drama directed and written by Michael Almereyda with Stephanie Andujar, Hana Colley, Geena Davis, Hannah Gross, Jon Hamm, India Reed Kotis, Leslie Lyles, Cashus Muse, Tim Robbins, Lois Smith.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10, 90% critic 62% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Common Sense Media, age 13+, Postivie messages 2*, positive role models 2*, violence 1*, sex 3*, language 3*, drinking, drugs & smoking 2*, Metacritic 82 out of 100 with 28 critics 7.5 out of 10 with 31 reviews, Empire Online 4* out of 5*, The Guardian 4* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Amagansett, Long Island, New York.  Based on a stage play by Jordan Harrison with the same title.  Lois Smith also acted in the play.  Filmed in 13 days with the actors working 12 days.  Won a $20,000 cash award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.  The award was for an imaginative and nuanced depiction of the evolving relationships between humans and technology.  A focus on intelligent machines can challenge our ideas of identity, memory and mortality.