The Alzheimer Case

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Alzheimer Case
Directed by	Erik Van Looy
Release date(s)	October 15, 2003 April 15, 2004 August 26, 2005
Country	Belgium
Language	Dutch
IMDb profile

The Alzheimer Case (a.k.a. The Alzheimer Affair or The Memory of a Killer) (Dutch title: De Zaak Alzheimer) is a 2003 film directed by Erik Van Looy, based on the novel De Zaak Alzheimer by Jef Geeraerts.

An American remake of the film is in development at Focus Features. Stephane Sperry is the producer. Matthew Michaud adapted the screenplay from the original film.

1 Plot
2 Main cast
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Plot

The movie is about a former hitman for organized crime who goes out on one last mission, despite having recently developed Alzheimer's disease.

Ledda is hired to kill two targets. He kills the first and retrieves a safety deposit box from the man's safe, as requested by his employers. However, his second target turns out to be a 12 year old female prostitute, Bieke, who had been recently busted, and Ledda refuses to kill a child. As a result, his employer, Seynaeve, not only has a second hitman kill the girl, but also has a hit placed on Ledda. Ledda kills the hitman, though not without losing an older female prostitute who had recently befriended him.

As a result, Ledda decides to kill Seynaeve. He also reviews the contents of the safety deposit box, 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 disoriention and seemingly forgetful of what he was doing for a brief period of time. It grows worse as the movie progresses.

Ledda is hounded in his attempts to get revenge/justice on the Johns by the police, two detectives in particular (Vincke, and Verstuyft), who always seem to be one step behind him. Ledda toys with the police over this fact, though 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 altzheimer'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.