Remember Me

*Definite, major spoilers* I hate tear-jerkers. I hate romances. I hate movies about people who have troubled pasts. I hate character deaths. I hate portrayals of drunken cops who take the law a little too far and people with anger management issues. So even though I like Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin, I figured I would come out hating this movie. Only I didn't, and to say I didn't is a major understatement. I will say that only three movies have made me tear up, and this is one of them. It's funny because no matter how hard I try to "type" it -- Is it "just" a tear-jerker? Is it "just" another typical romance, albeit with a twist ending?--- I can't. And you know, I really don't care anymore. I think any movie that can make you feel the way this movie made me feel stands on its own. Because okay, I have about 40+ DVDS in my personal collection. I can pop in any one of them and watch it and feel almost nothing. I enjoy what I'm watching, sure, but after it's over I can go back and wash the dishes or feed my dog or whatever, and never think about it again that day, or any day, really, until I'm ready to watch it again. But Remember Me? People talk a lot about the ending, and yeah, I suppose that's what makes it so unforgettable. And I also suppose that's what turns some people off: they see it as exploitation. Personally I think that's ridiculous -- if you really wanted to argue the point further, you'd have to consider all war movies and portrayals of natural disasters exploitive. Maybe it hits a little hard only 9 years later, when so many families are still grieving and we get televised reminders every year. But to anyone who considers the ending out of place with the whole film -- "But they've just fallen in love!" you might say. "What's the point of showing this? And why THIS? Exploitation!" Well, I'm not a screenwriter, but I thought I could see "why this:" Nobody ever said this was a romantic comedy. There's no rule saying that every movie has to follow the formula romance. It doesn't work out that way statistically, anyway. People die. They die in national tragedies. 911 was sudden and I'm sure none of the people in those buildings expected to die when they woke up that morning. The thing is, life isn't automatically tied up in a neat little package when we die. In many cases victims of tragedies are young. They have emotional problems. They've recently fallen in love. If you didn't see the ending coming, well, you're not really supposed to, are you? The only real clue is that it's set in 2001, and I barely pay attention to dates on the screen, anyway. It's sudden because 911 was sudden. The romantic plot doesn't lead up to the ending because that's how it is in reality for many couples separated by death. I can't see it as exploitation because it's so very real, it's so very possible, and it's so very meaningful. If Tyler had died any other way, would the film have had the same impact? No, I don't think so. Because when you focus on this particular tragedy, and one particular character who is involved in it, that character beecomes a symbol for other lives lost. You end up not only feeling tremendously for the character of Tyler, but in watching grief in the aftermath of his death played out on-screen, the entire weight of the tragedy hits you all over again. I was in 4th grade when 911 happened. At the time I had no clue what it all meant or what I was supposed to feel. It is only in the past two or three years or so, in watching a documentary about the event (Possibly called Flight 93? I'm not sure of the exact name.) and watching video tributes to the 911 victims that any of it really hit home for me. This was real. This happened in our country less than ten years ago and it's still affecting us. And finally I watched Remember Me... Besides the realistic acting and the sympathetic and complex characters, and yes, the execution of the plot as a whole, I found the title nearly perfect as well: "Remember Me." Not "Remember 911." Because if you forget that every tragedy has a deeply personal aspect, you're missing something important. So in summary, I say it's not an exploitation, but a tribute. And it's a great movie to boot, so you really can't go wrong. I wouldn't watch it if you're feeling depressed, though: I literally cried for about a half-hour afterward and before I watched it I felt perfectly normal. But like I said: any movie that can grab you like that is definitely worth watching. Read more

I was not inclined to check out "Remember Me" because it stars Robert Pattison. In the " Twilight " universe I belong to neither Team Edward nor Team Jacob, being more of a Team Bella kind of guy (or maybe Team Alice), so his presence was insufficient to get me interested. But the movie also has Emilie de Ravin, who I remember as being young and pregnant on " Roswell " before she played young and pregnant on " Lost ," which restored some equilibrium. But then I noticed that the movie had an A- rating on Redbox, which is one of the few A grades I have seen, so I decided to rent it, knowing nothing else about the movie. It turns out that Pattison's Tyler Hawkins and de Ravin's Ally Craig, are both scarred by devastating deaths in their lives and in the great tradition of such movies, they find each other, and despite coming from totally different worlds and a deep dark secret that could threaten everything, it looks like things might possibly have a chance of actually working out between them as they heal each other. As far as both leads go I can say this is the best work I have seen either of them turn in. For the first time I got a sense of Pattison as playing an interesting character who is neither Hogwart's golden boy nor the paragon of undead virtue, and the actor gets bonus points for being an executive producer on this film, which underscores his level of commitment to this product. But as much as I liked his performance I thought de Ravine was better. Certainly her's is the more grounded and realistic character, and she avoids a lot of the stereotypical problems of the female character in this type of romance. Then there is Ruby Jerins as Tyler's kid sister Caroline. I have watched Jerins in " Nurse Jackie ," where I am pretty sure I have never seen her character, a child worried about way too much to far too great a degree, crack a smile. So it was nice seeing her be more like a real kid, although Caroline has her own problems. In many ways, the most touching relationship in the film is between Caroline and Tyler, while the most troubled is between Tyler and their father, Charles (Pierce Brosnan), who is apparently as rich as he is distant from his children. Ally has issues with her father (Chris Coooper), a New York City cop, who actually gets to meet Tyler before she does, and therein lies another crucial element in the tale. As you might guess with Brosnan and Cooper as the fathers, the supporting cast of this 2010 film is a major strength. The international flavor of the cast continues with Lena Olin as Tyler's mom, and then we throw into the mix Martha Plimpton as Ally's mother and Kate Burton as Brosnan's assistant. Finally, director Allen Coulter, whose name you might recognize more from his directing television series on HBO than as the director of " Hollywoodland ," brings an elegant artistic touch to this film. The problematic element of this movie for the critics (versus the reviewers) is the ending, which, I have to admit, I did not see coming, because I did not pick up on the significance of the opening shot or work out the dates to realize this is not a film set in our present. For that matter, I did not try to decode the meaning of the film's title. That being said, I think there are three factors supporting the conclusion. The first is that the ending is well set up as a surprise. Marcelo Zarvos's score creates a strong sense of unease that something not too good is going to happen, and those of you adept at "reading" a film will pick up on what is going to be the source of that badness, only that is not how it plays out. I am not sure if the credit belongs to the screenplay or the director, but it plays out well. The second would be how the more you think about the movie the more you can see how the actions of the characters ended up switching the positions of two of them, and you all know how I love irony the master trope of the universe. The final and least important one is that screenwriter Will Fetters literally began with the ending and then decided to tell a story that reached that particular point. There is no way of knowing that when you just see the film, and I did not find out about it until afterwards, but it is important to appreciate that the ending is integral to the story and not one of those endings that Hollywood producers like to slap on a film. Read more