Memory is the new movie starring Jessica Chastain that looks equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking

There's nothing like a January tearjerker to bring some catharsis to your cinema experience.

Jessica Chastain's new film Memory, which comes out in the new year, explores the story of a traumatised social worker and single mother, whose life collides with an old high school colleague (played by Peter Sarsgaard). And the trailer has dropped.

The movie has officially been entered into the Oscars race, so it's definitely one to watch. Here's what we know so far.

Jessica Chastain plays Sylvia, a social worker who holds memories of childhood trauma and lives a structured life through her routine as a single mother and looking after others in a care home. Then, a man she went to school with, Saul (Peter Sarsgaard), follows her home from their high school reunion, and the friendship that grows from this chance meeting will change both of their lives.

We soon discover that Saul has dementia, which in a way makes it easier for Sylvia to reconnect with him and her past.

Alongside Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard is an amazing supporting cast, including Merritt Wever (Tiny Beautiful Things, Marriage Story), Brooke Timber (Russian Doll), Jessica Harper, Josh Charles and Elsie Fisher (The Summer I Turned Pretty).

There is – it looks to be super heartwarming, with emotional performances from both leads. Do we predict Oscar gongs for these two?

Well we know that Jessica shopped for her character Sylvia's wardrobe herself in US store Target, initially spending $130 – pretty modest for movie sets.

She's also spoken out about the wider expectation that she'd be something of a diva onset, especially as she began filming shortly after winning the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Eyes Of Tammy Faye – as an indie, Memory didn't have trailers or a makeup assistant on set.

“I’m not doing a movie to be pampered. If I want to be pampered, I’ll go to a spa. I’m doing a film to work and to be creative, and I don’t need to sit by myself in a trailer,” she said in an interview with IndieWire.

“It was so much about how this woman has been calcified by life and is only really moving through the world using trauma as a shield to prevent anyone from getting close,” Jessica explained about the movie's premise. “By meeting someone who doesn’t have a connection to the past, she’s able to free herself from her past, and she’s able to start again in each day and each moment to discover who she is again.”

It's set to drop in cinemas on 5 January.