Remember Me Review
Friday, April 2, 2010
, Posted by Should I See It at 8:40 PM
Film: Remember Me
Director: Allen Coulter
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan.
Plot: A romantic drama centered on two new lovers: Tyler, whose parents have split in the wake of his brother's suicide, and Ally, who lives each day to the fullest since witnessing her mother's murder.
So, Remember Me is the vehicle that is supposed to propel Robert Pattinson beyond The Twilight Saga. Fortunately for viewers, Remember Me is not nearly as painful as the Twilight films, but unfortunately for Pattinson, this is not a high point in his career.
Remember Me is an incredibly pretentious film: especially the ‘love story,’ which is supposed to lure in all the Twilight fan girls, to get another glimpse at their Edward Cullen.
There is a bit of ridiculousness as to the extremes of the tragedy of Tyler and Ally’s lives: one's brother committed suicide, and he found the body, and other whose mother was shot in front of her. You would think they would do a lot of living. Unfortunately, all they do is a lot of moaning.
The love story in this film is just as shallow as the one in the aforementioned vampire movie. And it drags this film………. Oh, how the love story drags…..
And while where talking about how the film drags…….it actually manages to come to a grinding halt whenever it moves to the relationship between de Ravin and Cooper’s characters. Chris Cooper (an actor who I really admire) is absolutely wasted in this drivel.
Fortunately for viewers, the film picks up when dealing with Tyler’s relationship with his family. Actually, to be honest the relationship that has the most substance and the most believability is the one between Tyler and his (much) younger sister Caroline. Actually, Caroline’s story is far more engaging than Tyler’s (something wrong with that, don’t you think writers?) Ruby Jerins does well as Caroline, while not quite as polished as other actors of her age, she is warm and inviting, and one of the few characters the audience has sympathy for.
And once Tyler gets over himself, his realtionship with his father (Pierce Brosnan) actually becomes quite touching.
Tate Ellington as Tyler’s best friend and housemate, Aidan, is downright embarrassing, and de Ravin seems to be concentrating entirely on her accent, so much so that she forgets to emote.
And don’t even get me started on the ending….
Don’t read any further if you don’t want to be spoiled
So the film ends with Tyler going to his father’s office on September 11, 2001. We all know what happened that day… (it’s an American movie, so there has to be terrorism in there somewhere). Though, to be fair, it was foreshadowed (very badly) in one of the opening scenes.
And it probably didn’t help that there was an obnoxiously loud woman repeating “Omigod! He’s in the Twin Towers! He’s in the Twin Towers!”
Yes, we get that. The whole movie was set in 2001 just so Tyler could be killed in the September 11 attacks. But the question I keep asking myself is: why? Why did the writers feel the need for the story to end that way?
I gather that it was included to encourage us to live and love our lives and the people in it. However, I don’t feel the film portrays this message at all.
The dead brother thing seems only to serve as a reason for Pattinson to (over)act depressed, angsty and mopey (not unlike a certain other character that he plays…).
Similarly, the notion that Ally 'lives each day to the fullest', that is mentioned in the plot summary, is entirely superficial. This passion to ‘live’ only seems to manifest itself in ordering dessert first at a restaurant. It doesn’t seem to translate into any other aspect of her life.
The inclusion of the September 11 attacks were intended, I assume, to give some levity to ending of the film. But what it actually does is highlight the flaws in the rest it. Not to mention the background music that builds up for about five minutes before hand, to make sure we *know* something big is coming! To attach the September 11 attacks to such an unremarkable relationship seems to cheapen the entire tragedy.
Actually, to be quite honest, the end seems to have come from an entirely different movie. It’s almost as if they came up with the ending first and then tried to create a story around it. Problem is, the film makers failed miserably in coming up with a story that deserved that ending, because Remember Me is entirely forgettable.
Should I See It?
No. Trust me, you're not missing out on much.
Please note: My sarcasm relating to the events of September 11, 2001 is related only to the way they were portrayed in the film. The events of September 11, 2001 were catastrophic and have had a huge impact the world over, but I would argue that its inclusion in the film cheapens and trivialises the tragedy of the events.
Please don’t send me hate mail.
Thank you.
Remember Me Official Site here.
Whoop