The Eternal Memory
MTV Documentary Films | Release Date: August 11, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleAug 18, 2023
What rings truest and richest about The Eternal Memory, as exquisitely humane a film as you’re likely to see all year, is what abiding love and stewardship look like in the moment: to care so deeply for someone as to tend to their memories, and to be loved so deeply that it’s the last beautiful thought one may ever need. Read full review
100
Original-CinThom ErnstAug 14, 2023
Sure, The Eternal Memory is tough and occasionally relentless, but it is also affirming in ways unexpected. Significant and intense indeed, but the excursion is far from weary. Read full review
100
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJun 30, 2023
It’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. Read full review
94
The Film VerdictPatricia BoeroFeb 17, 2024
The Eternal Memory is a salute to two courageous people, who were willing to share the joys of their daily lives, but also the anguish inflicted by a cruel disease. Read full review
90
The Daily BeastNick SchagerAug 11, 2023
A 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. Read full review
90
Screen DailyJonathan HollandJun 30, 2023
[An] unusually direct, moving and deceptively simple exploration of love – and of film – as defences against forgetting. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 30, 2023
Alberdi 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. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 23, 2023
Truly, it is elucidating for folks who’ve never seen dementia up close, and guttingly familiar to those who have. But even more profound is the film’s record of a remarkable love. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 22, 2023
Filmed in Augusto and Pauli’s handsome brick-and-timber home in Chile, and punctuated by home movies and news footage of Augusto in his prime, The Eternal Memory mostly eschews voyeurism for its own maudlin sake. Read full review
83
Paste MagazineAurora AmidonAug 9, 2023
It’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. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 13, 2023
The Eternal Memory is a restrained, respectful piece of film-making that takes its lead from its two subjects. It’s wrenchingly sad, but also a testament to the love that endures, even as Augusto increasingly struggles to recognise his wife. Read full review
80
The GuardianLeslie FelperinNov 8, 2023
Sometimes God is just too on the nose when he makes his creations suffer; but at least Alberdi’s humane, profoundly empathic film-making offers some balm. Read full review
80
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergAug 14, 2023
An uncannily intimate portrait of a couple adapting their relationship to a disease that affects the mind, The Eternal Memory doesn’t aim to hold spectators’ hands. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeJun 30, 2023
This 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. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 9, 2023
We’re left with the question of what a person can hang on to when everything about their identity and values leaves them. Read full review
75
The Associated PressMark KennedyAug 9, 2023
The 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. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneAug 7, 2023
Maite Alberdi’s film slowly reveals the personal loss of the ability to remember as inextricably linked to the loss of national memory. Read full review
75
ColliderTherese LacsonJun 30, 2023
Alberdi 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. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsNov 10, 2023
It’s a pleasant film, albeit one which makes its point fairly early on and then restates it in various, sometimes sentimental ways. The film lacks for a strong narrative arc, and instead opts to filter stories and histories through the present moment. Read full review
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