Memoria

I finally had the chance to see Memoria last night at the Broadway (it seems like I have been waiting forever for it to get a wide release) and, while I sometimes found it to be incomprehensible, I was absolutely mesmerized.  Jessica (Tilda Swinton), a Scottish orchid farmer living in Colombia, is awakened one night by a mysterious booming sound that only she can hear.  She continues to be plagued by the sound, which prevents her from sleeping, as she wanders aimlessly from place to place interacting with strangers.  She seems to be an outsider everywhere she goes but she absorbs the energy of every place and ultimately has a strange connection to the memories of others as she tries to find the source of the sound.  There is an explanation, of sorts, but it is almost unimportant because the real discovery is the connection between everyone and everything.  Not a lot happens and I sometimes found the lack of a narrative structure to be frustrating, especially with the long takes of particular images and with the lack of a score, but whenever I stopped trying to figure out what was happening on the screen and just let myself get lost in what Jessica was experiencing I found it to be very haunting and profound.  Swinton gives a captivating performance because, even though you don't know much about her character, she is still able to create a lot of sympathy for Jessica.  Not everyone will enjoy this film (a group was discussing it in the lobby and one thought it was a masterpiece and the rest thought it was the most boring thing they had ever seen) but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it!