Memory Sore is an Academy Award Winning, Multi-Award Winning American drama film written by Stephen Dyer and directed by Martin Scorcese starring Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Dominic Monaghan, Robin Williams, Ryan Phillippe, Aaron Paul, Harvey Keitel and Giovanni Ribisi.
The film secured 2 Oscars 1. For Best Original Screenplay and 2. Best Score.
It secured An Emmy for Best Picture and an Emmy Nomination for Christian Bale's performance.
The film received the Palm D'Or for Truly Moving Picture.
Plot[]
Benji Thomas (Christian Bale) is a 19 year old street punk teenager with an intense hatred for homosexuals as his father Lionel (Harvey Keitel) would sexually abuse him.
He never recovered from the trauma despite his father then being incarcerated, he begins to experience hallucinations and migraines and takes up on heavy medication.
His young half-brother Leonardo (Dominic Monaghan) then reveals that he is homosexual to their mother and his father.
Whilest their mother Anna (Cate Blanchett) and his father Martin (Bryan Cranston) accept his orientation his brother Benji refuses to and comes to tell his vicious gang of punk friends about it.
His bestfriend Simon (Aaron Paul) happened to have been molested by a paedophile when he was only six years old and beneath his relatively outgoing, kind nature lies a dormant blind fury.
Benji's friend Thomas (Ryan Phillipe) proposes that maybe Benji is homosexual like his brother which sparks his anger.
The two briefly punch on and Benji who pins down Thomas insists that his brother isn't gay he is just confused and Thomas demands he prove it.
Benji then states he will and calls upon his younger brother Leo who had been hoping so desperatley for his approval and understanding jumps with excitement when Benji tells him he's going to take him out somewhere nice and make up for being a crappy brother with the whole orientation thing.
He states they are to go bowling at the old Brexton Movie Theatre which plays the old 1950's classic black and white films Leo adores as Leo wishes to be an actor.
He brings him instead to the woods off an overpass highway where they meet up with his friends where he claims his just gotta pick up something up off Simon first.
He asks Leo to step out with him and then begins to drink an excessive amount of alcohol.
The others who are already drunk then greet Leo and begin to then insult him and hit him when he answers his gay to when Thomas asks.
He asks Benji to tell them to let go and he informs Leo he can't do that until he admits he is not actually homosexual just confused.
Leo is then pinned down and threatened with having his hair lit on fire at which point Benji begins to tell them to stop.
Thomas retracts the lighter from Leo at last minute and they then begin to provoke Simon who then in a moment of anger picks up a rock and cracks it down upon Leo's face killing him instantly.
What follows is the other three fleeing and Thomas by gun threatening Benji and the others not to tell what happened.
Benji broken begins to trip out on hallucinations galore and his mother and stepfather then soon file a missing persons on Leo.
Leo's body is then discovered in the woods and due to the massive rainstorm all incriminating evidence to lead to the culprits responsible for smashing in their son's face has been washed away.
A year passes and Benji finds himself slipping into the world of alcohol and drug addiction.
His friends also and Simon has become manic depressive, constantly cutting himself with straight razors for what he had done.
Benji eventually comes to confide what had happened to his mother Anna and his stepfather upon nearly overdosing on Cocaine.
His mother physically attacks him and has to be restrained by the stepfather as she had been in the year following Leo's death.
Benji then begins to see the ghost of Leo who tells him he forgives him for what he's done.
Benji then goes into councelling and Anna comes to kill Simon for killing her son.
She instead backs out and decides to inform the police of what happened but finds as she comes there Simon confessing and apologizing.
She slaps him and then breaks down crying.
She is comforted by officers and seizes hold of Simon's hand.
Later that night as Martin goes off to collect Benji from a late night councelling appointment Thomas comes to the house and confesses to which she tells him she knows what he did, that her son told her.
He begins to apologize and then attempts to kiss Anna, as she demands to know what the hell he is doing, he tells her he isn't sure anymore, about anything, and that he wasn't sure what he was doing the night Leo died and that Hell may very well be the place he is heading to.
Anna firmly states what he did was wrong to which he yells back he knows that and she finishes with firmly but he's not going to hell.
He then states prison might as well be hell right.
Anna then runs for the phone to call the police and begins to yell out, Thomas tries to quieten her but when he fails he pushes Anna and she smashes against a picture frame shattering the glass frame.
She falls to the ground injured and bloody and then begins to see her as Leo.
He picks up a glass shard from the ground and crying and sobbing slowly aims it at her.
Benji then comes with the stepfather and the stepfather is shot with a tranqulizer by Thomas.
He aims the dart gun at Benji and Benji demands to know what he's doing and then states he's not a monster, not a murderer.
He asks how can he say that when they killed his brother, he states they are both murderers.
Thomas then goes to bring down the glass shard upon Anna when Benji cocks a gun and aims it at Thomas.
He tells Thomas to just leave man but Thomas states see we are murderers and then demands he shoot him.
Benji can't bring himself to do it and then Thomas' bestfriend Carter (Giovanni Ribisi) the quiet one opens fire and kills him.
The authorities arrive and arrest Carter.
Anna is taken to hospital and Anna tells the police to let her son accompany her to the hospital instead of being arrested at that instance.
At the hospital Benji gets on his knees and begs for forgiveness from Anna and Martin.
They both they say they forgive him and as Anna goes to sleep and Martin goes down to the cafeteria Benji sees his brother once again and believes he is hugging him.
The police then come to collect Benji and see him hugging the air with his eyes firmly closed in happiness with tears streaming his cheeks.
Cast[]
- Cate Blanchett as Anna Templeton
- Christian Bale as Benji Thomas
- Dominic Monaghan as Leonardo Templeton
- Robin Williams as Councellor Davey Blakely
- Ryan Phillippe as Thomas Clearwater
- Aaron Paul as Simon Callows
- Giovanni Ribisi as Carter Thoms
- Harvey Keitel as Lionel Thomas
- Bryan Cranston as Martin Templeton
- Shawn Ashmore as Leo's Bestfriend Alex Barter
- Jonathen Ruckman as Officer Douglas
- Darren VanCleave as Officer Rollins
- Rachel Shelley as Jenna Blakely
- Jennifer Ehle as Officer Beemont
- Justin Kirk as Dr. Hartman