85
Metascore
19 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The PlaylistRodrigo PerezThe PlaylistRodrigo PerezIt’s a striking and intimate piece of cinema, a heartrending tale of living with and battling neurological disorders, the love necessary to endure it, and the anguished dolor of remembrance.
- 90The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyThe Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyAlberdi makes her directorial hand virtually invisible, observing her subjects from a discreet distance that allows them to be narrators of their own story while never speaking directly to the camera.
- 90Screen DailyJonathan HollandScreen DailyJonathan Holland[An] unusually direct, moving and deceptively simple exploration of love – and of film – as defences against forgetting.
- 90The Daily BeastNick SchagerThe Daily BeastNick SchagerA testament to the vitality and fragility of memory that itself serves as an act of preservation—of a prized past, a fraught present and an everlasting devotion.
- 83Paste MagazineAurora AmidonPaste MagazineAurora AmidonIt’s nearly impossible to talk about Alzheimer’s without forefronting misery, anger and despair. It is a cruel and callous disease that destroys lives piece by piece. Perhaps the greatest feat of the courageous The Eternal Memory, then, is Alberdi, Góngora and Urrutia’s ability to broach the subject with all of these emotions—but with an emphasis on life, not death.
- 80VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeThis insistent parallel between individual and national consciousness never culminates in quite the rhetorical kicker Alberdi seems to be seeking, but there’s power in it just the same: a reminder of how our best efforts to keep and curate memories — for ourselves and others — can be thwarted by time.
- 75ColliderTherese LacsonColliderTherese LacsonAlberdi reminds us of the essential beauty of personal connection, and it elevates The Eternal Memory from a memoir to a glimpse into what the best humanity has to offer even in times of hopelessness or crisis.
- 75Slant MagazineDiego SemereneSlant MagazineDiego SemereneMaite Alberdi’s film slowly reveals the personal loss of the ability to remember as inextricably linked to the loss of national memory.
- 75The Associated PressMark KennedyThe Associated PressMark KennedyThe loving, lyrical Maite Alberdi -directed documentary is the story of one man’s decline due to Alzheimer’s disease, but it’s so much more. It’s a stronger love story and one that tries to say things about a country’s collective memory, too.
- 75RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyRogerEbert.comGlenn KennyWe’re left with the question of what a person can hang on to when everything about their identity and values leaves them.