Marjorie Prime | Jon Hamm stars in a haunting sci-fi drama about memory and forgetting

By Jason Best
( What's on TV )
published

Marjorie Prime - Poster Jon Hamm Lois Smith.psd
(Image credit: © 2016 MARJORIE PRIME THE MOVIE)

The elegantly restrained, stealthily thought-provoking drama Marjorie Prime imagines a near-future world in which the wonders of artificial intelligence can summon up the dear departed as holograms of their past selves.

So ailing 85-year-old Marjorie (played by veteran actress Lois Smith) can reminisce with a fortysomething version of her late husband (Jon Hamm) that has been programmed by her daughter (Geena Davis) and son-in-law (Tim Robbins) to offer aid and consolation. Yet even when recalled by a computer, the past is never fixed. Especially when it involves pain and loss.

Adapted from Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play (which also starred Smith), writer-director Michael Almeyreda’s superbly acted film haunts the mind long after you've seen it. And it offers plenty of stimulating ideas about grief, memory and the solace of forgetting.

Certificate 12. Runtime 95 mins. Director Michael Almereyda

Marjorie Prime is available on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from 29 January from Bulldog Films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXjbHxbbnbs

Jason Best
Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.