In ‘Memory,’ director Martin Campbell punches up Liam Neeson’s new action vehicle with tenderness

In Memory, based on the 2003 Belgian film The Memory of a Killer, Neeson’s character, Alex, makes a living serving lead salads. Not too far off from a certain Guy Pearce role (but medically very different), Alex has memory loss, a diagnosis his brother also lives with in a care facility. (Watch out for an incredible drama scene with Alex’s brother, one of many surprises that kick this film up a notch.) His normally clean getaways start to get a little sloppy, as he’s unable to remember the kind of details that keep you from getting caught or dead. Medication helps some, but Alex knows where this trail leads, so he wants to make the best of this one last job. And that one last job ratchets up some compelling character work and intense action. 

Campbell is one of the great action filmmakers of our time. He has a knack for exceeding expectations by seamlessly balancing good drama with armrest-grabbing tension. Just look at his James Bond films. He successfully rebooted the franchise twice, with Casino Royale and Goldeneye. And he continues that trend here with Memory.

To celebrate this well-rendered entry, the Denton Record-Chronicle rang up Campbell in Bulgaria to discuss his mastery of narrative pace, his ability to pump the brakes for human moments, and the importance of subtlety and trusting audiences. Read our transcribed conversation below, and catch Memory in theaters this weekend.

Q&A

The following is a transcript of an interview conducted on April 14 by Zoom Audio. Some of the questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Preston Barta: Mr. Campbell, it’s great to talk to you for four reasons. One, I am a fan. Two, this movie is super solid. Three, I have very fond memories of watching The Mask of Zorro with my grandfather in theaters. And four, I took my wife on our first date to see Edge of Darkness — and if it wasn’t for one jump-scare in that movie, she probably wouldn’t have grabbed my hand, and who knows where I’d be. So, thank you for the memories, and thank you for Memory.

Martin Campbell: Oh, boy! I’m so happy to hear that. I’m glad you liked it.

Something that I feel you’re very skilled at as a storyteller is your control of a film’s pace. I imagine it’s tricky to pull off, but you do it with aplomb — especially here, as you’re juggling a few story elements. Is there some sort of creative secret you’ve uncovered when it comes to the art of pacing a narrative?

I have to tell you, you are the first interviewer that's ever asked me that question. It's something that I pay a lot of attention to. I carefully go through the script. I'm very aware of the pace in movies. And in the case of Memory, when we previewed it, it did very well. But there was some lagging in pace, and I think I've got it to where I think it’s more perfectly paced. I look at the length of scenes, the transitions and the action beats. It’s like a suspension bridge. The supports for the bridge are the action pieces, right? And we get the drama, but then what supports the movie is keeping an audience involved. I sort of balance it out very carefully. 

So, it's a very good question, and it is something I take very seriously. For example, in Casino Royale, I had three major sequences, and I remember thinking, "God, this is going to be really boring. How do I keep an audience involved?" Well, fortunately, the sequences worked out fine. But if you look at that film, you'll find action sequences and what exists between them. There's a big stair fight and what’s in between, and then Bond gets poisoned — you know what I mean? So, just kept them riveted in between the sequences, and very much the same with Memory.

Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right. I’ve always flocked toward the small moments in your films. You dare to pump the brakes for human moments because it’s what raises the stakes during those action scenes and makes us care. 

Very much so.

Since you brought up Casino Royale, a good example is the scene with Vesper and James sitting in the shower. I think that’s my favorite moment in the film. And in Memory, it’s the scene between Alex and his brother doing a coin toss, talking about sports. Without any spoon-feeding, we can feel the love there, understand Alex’s patience —

Yes! And he, of course, sees himself. He’s looking in the mirror.

Exactly.

That's where he’s heading, and there's nothing that will prevent that. In the original [Belgian film], it was there except no dialogue took place. He stops, looks at his brother and sees that his brother's too far gone. Then, he leaves because he realizes it was futile. But I thought it was a lovely scene [here]. The way Liam played that scene — it endears you to Liam, despite the fact he's a contract killer.

Right. Are you more creatively excited by those kinds of moments or orchestrating a great action sequence?

No, no. I'm much more excited by a scene like that, where there's a whole emotional spine to it. I mean, I try to make the action character-based, rather than just fast-and-furious action. You know, that kind of crazy action means nothing to me. It needs to be more than action for action's sake.

Yeah. I would say subtlety very much exists in your work. For instance — and I’m going to dance around spoilers — the scene with Guy Pearce’s Vincent, telling a story about justice and how it’s not guaranteed.

Isn't that a great speech? And he does it so well. Guy does it so brilliantly, and it's interesting. I did no cutting on that. You'll probably never notice, but it's actually when he starts talking about justice and that story about what happened. It's all in one shot. It's the old Sidney Lumet thing. Just let Guy do his thing, you know?

When did you recognize the importance of subtlety in your career?

I learned that doing television. I did a series in England called, funny enough, Edge of Darkness, which I, of course, made into a movie. But it was a six-hour series, and it's actually much better than the movie because of the real estate I had on six hours instead of two. I did a lot of drama on BBC, so that's where I learned it, really.

So, through all the themes you explore here, such as how unfair the system is, justice, power and the lack of understanding, was there something that you discovered that stopped you in your tracks?

It takes a very cynical point of view in terms of lost justice. There's no question. The fact is that the Guy Pierce character, Vincent, has to, in a way, team up with Liam Neeson's character, because both of them have the same objective. And they both need each other to solve this. In other words, to see justice served. And that means Vincent is really getting into a gray area in terms of the legal situation. Stepping right outside the bounds of his job, but then he knows very well that without doing that, of course, he's never going to get justice. That's the key to it, and clearly both his boss and the DA have no intention of prosecuting this case, right? Now it's a very cynical view, but I'm sure, in this day and age, I think it's a very justified one.

Speaking of Guy Pearce, I’m going to ask a kind of silly question, but did Guy give Liam any insights about writing notes on your body to not forget things because of a certain movie he did about 20 years ago?

[Laughs] No, he didn’t, actually. There was none of that. Memento is a classic, of course. But he's a terrific talent to work with, Guy Pearce. He's never done a bad performance that I've seen him do. He's a terrific, very committed actor. We would sit down, dig into the scenes, work on dialogue and change stuff up. We reworked a lot of his scenes and made the movie better. Very intelligent and a superb actor.

Agreed.

Well, I’ll cut you loose on this: Since I’m from Texas, and obviously the story is set here, what does Texas offer you cinematically that you don’t get anywhere else?

Since it’s a remake, I thought setting it at the border was the perfect fit, simply because the backdrop to the movie is sex trafficking. I know that a lot of that goes on and who is more vulnerable than the people crossing from Mexico into El Paso? One of the things that I haven't been caught for yet is the scene on the boat, right? It's a landlocked city, and you’d probably have to travel hundreds of miles to get on a boat.

Well, we've got a lot of lakes.

That’s true. They’ve got a lake. I went to the lake, actually. Hopefully, this will be justified. It’s a human-made lake about two hours outside El Paso. But I did shoot in El Paso. You probably recognize the motorway and what’s in the establishing shots. But I also shot a lot of the interiors in Bulgaria and used plates here and there for the background and so forth. And I think it worked out fairly well.