The Memory of a Killer (2003)

          The Memory of a Killer         

NETFLIX SYNOPSIS:  Hardened hit man Angelo Ledda (Jan Decleir) finds his career threatened by the onset of Alzheimer’s in this Belgian crime thriller. As Ledda struggles to complete his contracts, he must also contend with two detectives (Koen De Bouw and Werner De Smedt) who are hot on his trail for recent murders. Soon, the pressure of it all prompts Ledda to turn on his own employers. Erik Van Looy directs from a script based on Jef Geeraerts’s novel.

REVIEW: Set in Antwerp, this fast-moving thriller kept me thinking and one edge from start to finish.  The film begins with an undercover investigation into a child prostitution ring via the case of 12-year-old girl who is pimped by her father.  Things go badly wrong at the scene; the father is killed and the girl taken into protective custody. Next, aging hit man Ledda is engaged — through his agent — to clean up the untidy mess, which traces back to machinations of the local power elite.  Ledda carries out his first hit on the son of local kingpin “The Baron,” and retrieves a strongbox of evidence requested by his employers.  When he is assigned to kill the 12-year-old girl, however, it’s too much for his old-fashioned sense of honor, and Ledda refuses.  His agent completes the assignment, kills the girl and attempts to kill Ledda, who then embarks on a single-minded odyssey of bloody revenge.

Ledda’s single-mindedness is threatened by his rapidly worsening Alzheimer’s disease.  After seeing his future in the dead eyes of his institutionalized brother, Ledda accepts his likely fate and resolves to take down the most mighty by means of physical vendetta as well as the secrets contained in the evidence box.  He establishes an uneasy alliance with a straight-arrow detective who is not afraid to contend with political corruption and the internecine rivalry between different branches of the police force.  Exquisitely choreographed cat-and-mouse games ensue.

Jan Decleir offers a fascinating, nuanced and powerful performance as Ledda.  Some of the effects used to signify his memory breaks take a bit of getting used to, but overall the film is stylish and streamlined, action- oriented but long on character as well.

Much better than many stateside efforts of similar ilk.  I highly recommend this one!

4.5 stars
Kym