The Memory Thief

An inventive indie character study of an O.C. toll-taker (Webber) in his twenties who develops an unhealthy identification with Holocaust survivors, The Memory Thief plays like The Man in the Glass Booth in reverse, or maybe The King of Comedy with a sense of history. The movie is forcefully told, thoughtfully composed, effortlessly acted and depressing as hell, but its point—that glomming onto the pain of others is, as one of the protagonist’s stalkees puts it, “a cheap man’s empathy”—packs a subtle punch.