A Memory in My Heart (1999) starring Jane Seymour, Bruce Davison, A Martinez, David Keith, Amanda Barfield, Colton James, Mika Boorem directed by Harry Winer Movie Review

A Memory in My Heart (1999)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jane Seymour and A Martinez in A Memory in My Heart (1999)

Live and Let's Find Out

Having just watched "A Memory in My Heart" I find myself feeling like I should praise the movie when it truth it is just another TV movie which is slightly more watchable thanks to the casting of Jane Seymour and Bruce Davison. I say just another because here we have a familiar amnesia plot as we watch a woman blighted by nightmares and headaches dealing with a past she can't remember and one which slowly returns to her but in doing so provides her with a family she can't remember. It is nicely put together up to a point as we have mystery upon mystery when it comes to the woman's past but "A Memory in My Heart" is also pretty predictable when it comes to how everything pieces together.

For eight years Rebecca Vega (Jane Seymour - The New Swiss Family Robinson) and her husband Joe (A Martinez) have dealt with the fact she can't remember her past but now with nightmares and paralysing headaches becoming more frequent something has to be done. When Rebecca bumps into a woman who recognizes her but calls her Abby it provides a weak link to her past but a link filled with surprises as Rebecca discovers that she had been married and had 3 children but for some reason got divorced and didn't get custody of the children. It leads Rebecca to the town she once lived and to confront her past and Chase Stewart (Bruce Davison - At First Sight) who she learns she was married to.

Bruce Davison in A Memory in My Heart (1999)

So I will say again "A Memory in My Heart" is nicely put together and goes through various phases smoothly to set up a series of mysteries. We have the initial mystery of the visions Rebecca has in her nightmares and then there is the strange scar on her head which she doesn't know where it came from. And there mysteries evolve as not only do we have the woman who recognizes her but it also leads Rebecca to start remembering things and returning to where she once lived.

Now the big mystery, what this all builds up to is what happened eight years ago to cause Rebecca to loose her memory. And as this is built up we also have the mystery surrounding the fact that Chase told their children she was dead, why they hate her, why people are nervous when they see her return and why Chase Stewart is threatening in trying to get her to leave. This is the trouble with "A Memory in My Heart" because it is less than subtle so you can quickly piece things together as to what happened to Rebecca and whilst it nicely spoon feeds the information so that we don't get it all in one hit it is less than surprising. In fact it goes a bit over the top when trying to make Rebecca's mysterious past more exciting driving things to the edge of corny.

The good thing is that "A Memory in My Heart" has a good cast with Jane Seymour doing a nice job of playing Rebecca, okay so the acting when it comes to the headaches is a bit over the top but her desperation to uncover the truth draws us in to her characters. And whilst Seymour is very much the focus of the movie the supporting performances from Bruce Davidson, David Keith and especially Al Martinez give it a nice rounded feel.

What this all boils down to is that "A Memory in My Heart" is a pleasantly entertaining movie which takes a familiar amnesia plot line and works through the various phases of a mysterious past nicely. But what helps make it feels more than just a TV movie is the cast which is lead nicely by Jane Seymour.


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