Page 14 - aruba-today-20220429

a14 people & arts
Friday 29 april 2022
Review: Liam Neeson kills down 'Memory' lane

By JAKE COYLE That, curiously, only seldom
AP Film Writer affects his mission to pro-
"Memory" is an interesting tect the girl and bring down
title for the latest Liam Nee- the syndicate, but it does
son thriller. Do you remem- make Alex even bolder; his
ber the last Liam Neeson life is fading away, anyway.
thriller? Or the one before At the same time, the
that? Who was it that got FBI agent Vincent Ser-
took in that one? It began ra (Pearce) is trying to
getting hard to tell these bring down the ring and
films from one another is watching over the very
years ago, and yet they've same teenage girl, but his
kept coming. "Key & Peele" higher-ups keep pushing
only seems more prophet- him toward other cases.
ic for making the actor's Pearce's very presence in
name plural. "Liam Nee- a memory-loss thriller is a
sons" is right. He contains, nod to "Memento." In one
and kills, multitudes. scene, when Neeson writes
"Memory," which opens clues on his forearm to help
in theaters Friday, doesn't himself remember, you half
much alter the formula expect Pearce to grab
but makes for a brutal and This image released by Open Road Films/Briarcliff Entertainment shows Scot Williams, left, and the pen and give him a
bleak variation on the Liam Liam Neeson in a scene from "Memory." few pointers. There's much
Neeson theme. It casts a Associated Press that's familiar in "Memory,"
broader, more interwoven a remake of the 2003 Bel-
noir tapestry set around the such action-star heroics of which was shot in Bul- tolerate certain things. He gian thriller "Memory of a
Texas borderlands, with an than it is something murkier garia) something more smashes one guy's head Killer." Alex and Vincent
ensemble cast including and more cynical. than a throwaway. But the against the bar for his rude form a loose partnership as
Guy Pearce, Monica Bel- Does that make it good? performers — Neeson and behavior toward a prosti- two men trying to carry out
lucci, and Ray Stevenson. Well, I wouldn't go that far. particularly Pearce — don't tute. And he won't kill kids. one act of justice in a place
If you come to "Memory" The filmmaking, by Martin phone anything in. When Alex refuses to kill a without it. If the Liam Nee-
hoping Neeson is going to Campbell, the British direc- Neeson plays an El Paso, 13-year-old girl (Mia San- son thriller has cast Neeson
growl one-liners like "Com- tor of thrillers both glossy Texas, assassin named Alex chez), a crime syndicate as a kind of globe-trotting
mit THAT to memory!" or ("Casino Royale") and gritty Lewis who tilts more toward seeking to cover up a child vigilante and defender of
"If memory serves me cor- ("Edge of Darkness"), lacks bad guy territory than most trafficking ring comes after justice in a fallen world, it's
rectly, you're toast!" — you the texture and sense of of the actor's protagonists. him. At the same time, Alex fitting that he should make
may be surprised to find place that could have Of course, though, Alex has is beginning to experience his way to the U.S.-Mexican
a movie less interested in made "Memory" (much a moral compass that won't early onset Alzheimer's. border. q

Review: News anchor Zain Asher writes uplifting memoir

hope when none seems childhood sweetheart, run- family's uplifter by wielding er a mile from their village,
possible. ning a neighborhood phar- the firm hand of a parent Asher mastered what she
Asher's face is familiar macy and, most important- who would not allow her calls "the art of back-break-
around the globe as the ly, the care of their young children to let themselves ing endurance." At school
anchor of CNN Internation- children. Grief-stricken and down. Even after long days in Nigeria she learned how
al's "One World." So is her exhausted, even with help at the pharmacy, Obiajulu to gain the respect of her
brother's, actor Chiwetel from relatives, she feared would oversee their stud- classmates and teachers.
Ejiofor, the star of the Oscar she was failing them. ies, engage them in a din- She returned to London
winner "12 Years a Slave" But Obiajulu had faced nertime book club, and put better able to adapt to ad-
and praised for writing and challenges before. As a the baby to bed. She es- versity and exclusion.
directing the Netflix film child, she lived through tablished the commitment Asher was pushed to visit
"The Boy Who Harnessed political and ethnic divi- to get ahead in the world Oxford University at 13,
the Wind." Their sister, Kan- sion during Nigeria's bloody through education and in- her mother pointing to stu-
dibe, a medical doctor, civil war, then moved with tense discipline. dents and telling her, "That
and brother, Obinze, an Arinze to London at 18 with Asher was often the only could be you someday."
entrepreneur, have made little more than a desire to Black child in her classes, at When her studies fell short
This cover image released by marks in their own fields. build a life together. Work- times feeling unwanted as of Oxford-worthy grades
Amistad shows "Where the However, the star of Ash- ing at a laundry, she was in- an outsider in terms of race because of the distrac-
Children Take Us: How One
Family Achieved the Unimagi- er's memoir, "Where the spired by another Nigerian and class. At age 9 her tions of television and tele-
nable" by Zain E. Asher. Children Take Us," is their woman to explore further mother sent her to live in phone, Obiajulu took away
Associated Press mother. Obiajulu Justina possibilities. Soon, Obiajulu Nigeria with her grandpar- the TV set and installed a
Ejiofor was raising a family was setting her sights on ents to learn strength and pay phone in the hallway.
By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL in London when a car ac- earning a pharmacy de- resilience the old-fashioned In time Asher was accept-
Associated Press cident killed her husband, gree, obtaining a loan and way. ed into Oxford — and later
In recounting her family's Arinze, a medical student, opening her own business, That "crash course in surviv- to Columbia University to
struggle to carry on after and critically injured son all thanks to the first "uplift- al" lasted nearly two years. study journalism. The lessons
her father's unexpected Chiwetel, then 11. With a er" in her new life. Cleaning the yard, scrub- from her mother helped her
death, Zain E. Asher has baby on the way, she had In the wake of tragedy, bing the toilet, balancing forge a successful career in
written a handbook for to cope with the loss of her Asher's mother became her buckets of water from a riv- TV news.q