The Memory Thief

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ronald h @RT44372985 08/29/2022 This is the most disturbing movie I've seen in years---and it's not a horror movie or even a suspense movie. It's simply about a young toll booth worker who, either by accident or by divine design, becomes obsessed with the Holocaust. He's a Christian, but he adapts himself to Judaism. He starts working part time for the Holocaust Foundation. He papers his walls with clippings of Holocaust victims, and he spends hours watching tapes of survivors telling their horror stories. He inexorably descends into madness. He puts up signs at his tollbooth, ordering German cars to take a different lane. This film affected me deeply. But it's not entirely because of the tragic historical subject matter. It's because of the young man, who finds his calling in life by chronicling the suffering of others. It's not normal; it's not healthy. As viewers, we just don't know how to process it. Mark Webber is memorable as the main character, but Jerry Adler's performance as a survivor steals the show. See more 08/23/2013 There are intriguing issues swirling around the film, but [director] Kofman never brings it to a boil, never finds the deeper, truer meaning inside the ideas he is grappling with. See more 06/03/2012 A very intense depiction of a young man's life unraveling. Meanwhile he's attached himself to the stories of Holocaust Survivors. A very dark film. Don't get me wrong: I liked it, I'm just warning you. See more 04/02/2012 Kofman misses the mark - comes off as abnormal, obsessive, amateurish and psychotic...very challenging to watch in one sitting. See more 01/11/2012 Just as protagonist/anti-hero Mark Webber fails to unearth a deeper meaning behind the Holocaust, so too does "Memory Thief" fail to place any meaning behind Webber's bizarre collapse into insanity. See more 05/14/2010 There is something incredibly distrubing about this film and I'm not quite sure what the writer and directior was trying to prove with this, except to make a case study about obession and just how one falls into madness or mental illness altogether. The reason it wasn't so successful was because the topic is so taboo and distrubing, its hard for people to appreciate the actual brillance of the film. The character who starts off likeable slowly becomes more and more digusting and unwatchable. Marc Webber is excellent giving off a discernibly creepy vibe that's off-putting and maddening. The story unfolds slowly almost taking you by surprise when you realize what the character is becoming or trying to become. Wonderful script, well executed and definately memorable if not disturbing. See more Read all reviews

The Memory Thief

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