Monika’s Pensieve

{FILM DIARY}

Remember Me (USA, 2010)

Seen: Friday, 19th March 2010 (cinema)
Runtime: 113′
Director: Allen Coulter
Cast: Chris Cooper, Robert Pattinson, Lena Olin, Ruby Jerins, Pierce Brosnan, Tate Ellington, Emilie de Ravin
Production House: Summit Entertainment, Underground Films and Management
Plot: Tyler Hawkins is a 22 year old New Yorker, who is going through a stage of rebellion. The film is the story of his relations with his father, his younger sister, his flatmate and his first love.

Trailer
While I usually love trailers and clips, even when they’re a bit inaccurate, in this case I advise everyone not to watch any because they will not give you any idea whatsoever what this film is like :] Even the clips that have been released for promotional purposes have been re-cut somewhat and give a false impression of the film.

Rating: +2 (Adored It)

Impressions In Short
I haven’t been surprised by a film this much in ages. I had expected something completely, completely different and was way off the mark. It was also way better than I expected it to be, which is great cause my hopes weren’t that high ;-P

More About the Film
Apparently, when they showed this film to a test audience and asked people to write down what other films this one reminded them of (standard procedure at test screenings in Hollywood I think), everyone wrote down that it reminded them of nothing… And well, I think that’s accurate ;)
The thing is, it’s very difficult to explain to people what they can expect of the film and therefore difficult to get the right sort of audience to see it. I’m not sure how I’m going to go about it in this review either…
So anyway, my first advice is to forget the romance and family drama labels. I suppose that’s what you have to call it if you want to label it, but in this case labels are unhelpful. You’re going to get a false idea of the film if you try to categorize it.
The tone of the film is immensely sarcastic. When we meet Tyler’s family for the first time, they’re all gathered by the grave of Tyler’s older brother. Tyler’s father (Pierce Brosnan) is, as usual, annoyed with him. The dialogue between them goes like this:

- Couldn’t you have worn a tie?
- I could’ve.

And that sort of sets the tone for the film *grin* The whole cast delivers the sarcasm very well, so a lot of it is downright hilarious. In fact for the first time ever me and Kin actually got into trouble in the cinema for “laughing too loudly”, which was a bit strange as we sure as hell were not the only people in the cinema laughing out loud this time (I get that there are films where our sense of humour may be disruptive to others, but this really wasn’t one of them). But then that guy generally was strange. After fiddling around with his mobile for a lot of the film without feeling he was being disruptive to others, he ended up leaving in the middle of the screening.
But I digress… The thing that completely doesn’t come through in the publicity material is that it’s a very beautifully shot film. It’s done in long shots with a lot of silences, which is the style that suits Pattinson best and he was awesome :) I think many of the people that look down on him solely because he’s the star of Twilight will be surprised with this role. I mean I was surprised he was this good and I actually do have some faith in him ;) I’m very keen to see what he’s going to come up with next - if these sorts of films and roles are the route he’s taking then it’s going to be a very interesting career to follow!
The romance is an important part of the movie, but there are other relationships in the film, which are just as important to how it plays out. I absolutely loved the whole subplot between Tyler and his little sister. The kind of banter they had between each other and the way they supported each other was great. It’s rare to have an 11 year old character written so well.
The cast was generally very stellar, so it’s a good film to watch for the acting. But I suppose it’s the writing that makes this film what it is. It’s a very unusual script. I find it hard to explain why it’s unusual exactly ;) But it is ;-P I suppose at its core, the film is a story about grief and how different people react to it in different ways, how it can bring a family together or tear it apart. But having said that, it doesn’t stop the film from being very funny most of the time. The ending was very WTF - it comes from nowhere and I know there’s a lot of debate on whether they should have gone that route. I initially felt the ending was wrong, but then after I thought about it a bit, I realized that this story doesn’t have an obvious or natural ending. I’m still not sure if that was the right way to finish the film, but I get why they did it and it does go well with the theme of grief. Anyway, if you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t go to the imdb boards or you will be spoiled.

Recommended?
Yep, definitely recommended unless you’re not into sarcasm cause then I suppose a lot of the film will be lost on you. If you don’t care for Pattinson, don’t worry, it’s a very different part to Twilight and he really suits it. And going through the threads and reviews on imdb only the people who didn’t get the film generally speaking seemed to have a problem with him. Otherwise a lot of people who absolutely hated him in Twilight, seemed to like him in this.