The Memory of a Killer (Erik van Looy, 2003)
How is it that, until I watched this movie, I had never heard the name Jef Geeraerts, upon whose book this movie is based? There is a crime going on here somewhere, and I mean to find it. If the book is a tenth as good as the film, the English-speaking world has been kept in the dark about one of the best crime writers going today. Yeah, I realize that every once in a while mediocre (or just plain bad) novels get made into great movies, but still, I'm playing the odds on this one. Most movies aren't as good as the books on which they're based, and The Memory of a Killer is a very good movie.
Angelo Ledda (the great Jan Decleir) is a French contract killer who is sent to Belgium to take out a minor official after retrieving a certain metal box from him. Once he has completed that assignment, his contact, Seynaeve (Gene Bervoets) orders him out on a related contract: the murder of a child prostitute, Bieke Cuypers (Laurien Van den Broeck). When Ledda discovers Cuypers' age, he refuses to take the contract, saying no one in his profession will kill a child. That night, on the news, he hears she's been shot, and sets out to find out who was behind the murder and why. Meanwhile, Eric Vincke (Koen de Bouw), a Detective Chief Inspector who was assigned to the Cuypers case, is also trying to figure out who killed Bieke Cuypers. When their paths cross, the game of cat and mouse begins-- will Ledda get to each person higher on the food chain before Vincke? And does Vincke really want to stop him? Complicating matters is the fact that Ledda is slowly sliding into Alzheimer's-related dementia.
There are a great many things to love about The Memory of a Killer, but all discussion of how good the film is must start with Jan Decleir, who quite simply owns this role. Decleir is wonderful as Ledda, the aging killer with a conscience. Everything about him is calm, precise, understated... unless it's not, of course. When Ledda's facade shows signs of wear and tear, that's when you can see how excellent a performance this is. Opposite Decleir you have de Bouw, the harried detective, who's not only chasing a killer who's baiting him, but is encountering resistance from places where it doesn't make sense, not least of all his partner. de Bouw's vision of Vincke as the guy who just puts his head down and bulls his way through, damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead, is just as capable as Decleir's vision of Ledda. This would be a great movie if it were just the two of them sitting in an interview room its entire length (viz. Closetland). But there is a plot to go along with it, and that a police procedural can be fresh and inventive in an age of endless Law and Order clones is impressive in itself. That screenwriter Carl Joos drops the biggest plot twist in such a way that you may not even notice how you've been fooled by this script through its entire length is just brilliant.
I'm not sure I can recommend this movie highly enough. If you haven't yet had the chance to see it, do so at your earliest convenience. **** ˝
