Sunday, April 25, 2010

Remember Me

Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie and you don't want to know what happens!



I saw this movie last night, and I haven't cried that hard in a movie in a very long time, if ever. To top it off, I KNEW the controversial ending. I couldn't resist looking it up after I heard the mixed feelings about the end. However, it still managed to have a big impact on me and offer several surprises. Remember Me is a love story, but not only a love story about Tyler (Pattinson's character) and his girlfriend. I saw (and reacted to)the love Tyler had for his family, especially his brother and sister, and the love that Tyler's father had for his children even though it was incredibly hard for him to show it.

The trailers suggest a Nicholas Sparks weepie of boy meets girl standard variety, but this is much more than that. Rather, what is featured is a story of two broken families of different social and economical sectors, struggling to mend old wounds as their children fall in love with one another.
Check out the trailer:

In his first official post-Twilight-craze-outing, Robert Pattinson stars as Tyler, the black sheep of a well to do family torn apart by the suicide of their eldest son, with Pattinson stuck in a permanent melancholy while sucking down a never ending amount of booze and cigarettes.

Acting on a dare (that ever cliché tool used in many romance movies), Tyler asks and goes on a date with working class college student Ally (Australian actress Emilie de Ravin). She also knows the pain of death in the family when –as a child- she witnessed the murder of her mother, a harrowing scene depicted in the film’s opening moments.

Even though its beautifully played love story is its drawcard, what will be remembered in Remember Me is the relationships with the fathers of these characters, played by the ever reliable Chris Cooper (as an over protective cop, father to Ally) and Pierce Brosnan (a self absorbed lawyer with shaky Brooklyn accent, dad to Tyler).

It is the moments with the fathers that give the characters a depth and maturity other films of the same ilk do not allow, even if their actions can come across as immature in their post-teen angst.

So what's the big shocking ending?
In the absence of any time-marking signposts, viewers are led to believe that Remember Me is set in the present — but it's really 2001. At movie's end, after having a fight with de Ravin, Pattinson's character takes an elevator to his father's 92nd-floor office on a bright September morning, looks out the window, and watches helplessly as American Airlines Flight 11 hits the building. That's right — Robert Pattinson dies in 9/11.

Some negative reviews:
If Remember Me is remembered for anything at all, other than being yet another Robert Pattinson vehicle, it will be for its over-the-top ending, which ranks high amongst the most shameless jerkers of tears ever unleashed upon lachrymose teens. - The Toronto Star

There's no shame in exploring tragedy through art. But exploiting it to make your very ordinary movie feel more important? That's another story. - The New York Daily News

1 comment:

  1. I really like this commentary on the movie. Good job.

    Only thing you said "In the absence of any time-marking signposts, viewers are led to believe that Remember Me is set in the present — but it's really 2001". There wasn't an absence though. At the beginning of the movie it says 1991 when the girl's mom is killed and then it flashes forward and says that it is 10 years in the future. So it does tell you from the start. Also the girl says she is 21 and doesn't it say at sometime that she was 10 when her mom was killed.

    Then you know the months because it follows the little sister. She ends sixth grade and enters 7th so you know you're probably in September.

    Though I don't think people were thinking about the year... or expect it to have anything to do with Sept 11. So it was still a shocker I'm sure.

    I think it's interesting that most of the main actors are not American and they are telling a story that is so tied to the American psyche.

    I love how you are so interested in the parallels between the Rob's character and the girl's relationship with their fathers. Its interesting.

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