''The Alzheimer Case'' (also known as ''The Alzheimer Affair'' or ''The Memory of a Killer''; nl, De zaak Alzheimer) is a 2003 Belgian

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by Erik Van Looy, based on the novel ''De zaak Alzheimer'' by

Jef Geeraerts Jozef Adriaan Anna Geeraerts (23 February 1930 – 11 May 2015), better known as Jef Geeraerts, was a Belgian writer. Geeraerts was born in Antwerp. After his studies in political and administrative sciences at the Colonial University of Belgiu ...

. It follows an assassin with Alzheimer's disease, who plans to retire but ends up becoming a target himself after he refuses to kill a young girl.

Plot

Angelo Ledda, a former

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...

for

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

, agrees to a last killing, despite his recently developed Alzheimer's disease. He is to kill two people; on killing the first and recovering a package from the first victim, he then learns the second victim is Bieke, a twelve-year-old girl pimped by her father, who had been recently busted, but then killed by police trying to escape. Ledda refuses to kill a child. Resultantly, his employer, Seynaeve, has another hitman kill Bieke and orders him to kill Ledda. Ledda kills the hitman first but only after the hitman kills a prostitute who had befriended him. As a result, Ledda decides to kill Seynaeve. He also reviews the contents of the package, and discovers that his employer had Bieke and the first target killed to cover for several individuals who had used the services of the child. He decides to clean house by killing them all, several of whom are high-ranking government officials. Ledda's Alzheimer's condition (for which he takes an experimental drug) periodically impacts him throughout the movie, resulting in disorientation and his being seemingly forgetful of what he was doing for a brief period of time. It grows worse as the film progresses. In his attempts to seek revenge upon his employers, Ledda contends with police pursuit. Two detectives in particular (Vincke and Verstuyft) seem to be one step behind him. Ledda toys with the police, although he ends up with a gunshot wound to the arm from Verstuyft because of attempting to talk to Vincke at one point. Ledda kills all of his intended targets, except the last, a high-ranking government official, Baron de Haeck, who manages to get away because of Ledda's worsening Alzheimer's, which leads him to forget to put the firing pin in his silenced pistol when preparing for the hit. Ledda is captured by the police, and between his worsening mental condition and his gunshot wound, is bed-ridden and in poor health. The prosecutor, Bracke, who is in the pocket of the Baron, tries to have a court-appointed psychiatrist kill Ledda, which results in Ledda making a hasty escape. Ledda ends up meeting the two detectives in a car, and gives them a clue as to the whereabouts of a tape from the safety deposit box which implicates the Baron in murder. The corrupt police close in and surround the car, placing all inside at risk. Ledda decides to sacrifice himself by making a run from the car, and is gunned down. The movie ends with the detectives finding the tape and watching the Baron getting arrested.

Cast

Release

Critical response

The film holds an 84% approval rating on review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, with 68 reviews tallied. The critical consensus statement reads: "Even though ''The Memory of a Killer'' is standard genre fare, it is also engaging and stylish." Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising the performance of Decleir, whom he compared to

Anthony Quinn Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...

Remake

An American remake of the film directed by

Martin Campbell Martin Campbell (born 24 October 1943) is a New Zealand film and television director based in the United Kingdom. He is known for having directed '' The Mask of Zorro'' as well as the James Bond films '' GoldenEye'' and '' Casino Royale''. He ...

and starring

Liam Neeson William John Neeson (born 7 June 1952) is an actor from Northern Ireland. He has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Tony Awards. In 2020, he was placed 7th on ''The I ...

began filming in Bulgaria in April 2021.

References

External links

Official site

Official site
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Criminal Brief on 'De Zaak Alzheimer'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alzheimer Case, The 2003 films 2000s crime action films 2000s crime drama films 2000s Dutch-language films Belgian action films Belgian crime thriller films Dutch action films Dutch crime drama films Dutch thriller drama films Belgian thriller drama films Dutch crime thriller films 2003 action thriller films 2003 crime thriller films 2003 psychological thriller films Films about Alzheimer's disease Films about contract killing Films based on Belgian novels Films directed by Erik Van Looy Films scored by Stephen Warbeck Sony Pictures Classics films Films shot in Antwerp Films set in Antwerp 2003 drama films Dutch-language Belgian films