I think the problem with Remember Me is partly Robert Pattinson. I know I risk being assassinated by Team Edward for saying that, so I suppose I should say I don’t think he puts in a bad performance at all. While he takes the brooding intensity a bit too far at times, and could with learning that sometimes less is more (as he could in Twilight), he’s actually a fairly magnetic presence. Nope, the problem is the expectations that come with him now he’s a big movie star - not that he should always just play Edward, although the parallels between Twilight and Remember Me are present - just that the adulation surrounding him means it's been difficult to sell the movie for what it is..
If he wasn’t a name, the film would have probably played a few film festivals, been politely patted on the head and then roundly ignored (in fact, without him, it’d have been lucky to get funded), but with him it gets a huge release that tries to make out it’s something far more than it is. Perhaps most frustrating is that there’s nothing in the film that couldn’t have been sorted out before they shot it, as the issues mainly revolves around the script.
There are a thousand films made every year with screenplays like this, but normally when they get a name cast they go through some sort of process to at least try and snip off the rough edges and make them more writing-craft savvy (a lot of Hollywood screenplays may be dreadful storywise, but they’re normally run pretty slickly), but here everything has the feel of a first time writer who wasn’t given enough guidance. As a result there are characters that scream ‘I am only a foil’, and revelations that erupt because they need to happen rather than emerging logically from what’s going on. The dialogue is often a little too on-point, the emotions overwrought, and there’s a tendency to tell rather than show. It means that there’s nothing genuinely wrong with the film, but equally it’s a rather frustrating experience, where everything’s very close to being emotionally affecting and beautifully drawn, but it never quite makes it. It is a little, ambitious but mediocre arthouse flick, suddenly writ big because of the screaming crowds that follow Pattinson around.
R-Patz plays Tyler Hawkins, a 21-year-old man drifting through life, feeling rather lost and prone to taking out his frustrations with violence. After mouthing off to a policeman and getting a split lip in return, he decides to try and woo the cop’s daughter, Ally (Emilie De Ravin). As with every film from She’s All That downwards where a man makes a bet to woo a girl, Tyler ends up falling deeply for Ally, especially after they realise their past traumas make them somewhat kindred spirits.
With Tyler dealing with a distant father, particularly in regards to how he ignores his younger sister, he tries to find a way out of his own youthful rebellion and arrogance, but fate may have other plans.
Much has been written about the ending of the film, which some may find devastatingly emotional, while others may think it’s just pretty cheap, especially as the film deliberately tries to keep it quiet for the big reveal. It’s certainly audacious, and personally my biggest problem is that it’s such a deus ex machine conclusion, that it doesn’t carry the weight it perhaps should. I understand the logic of telling a tale of a life just being lived up to that point, and perhaps it would have worked if Tyler’s existence genuinely did feel real, instead of a rather overwrought movie concoction. Indeed the film in general presents life in New York as basically constant misery and anger, with people trying to grab brief moments of happiness between major tragedies.
All the film’s flaws mean that it comes across a movie where you can see exactly what they were aiming at – and that what they were aiming at could have made a great movie – but this isn’t quite it.
The disc also includes a fairly interesting ‘making of’ featurette, which is worth watching just for how they talk about the difficulties of dealing with the film’s conclusion and why they dealt with it the way they did. There are also two audio commentaries, one with the cast and the other with the director.
In some respects the biggest surprise is that Pattinson chose this post-Twilight, as while in many ways it seems a deliberate attempt to get far away from the vampire tale, the overwrought passion and intesity of the love story at the centre is oddly similar.
Overall Verdict: A movie that shows a lot of promise, but the script’s weaknesses and its difficulty in making the end genuinely feel like conclusion to this tale rather than a deliberate attempt to wring emotion from the viewer mean it doesn’t quite work. Sorry Team Edward.
Special Features:
Making Of Featurette
Audio Commentary With Director Allen Coulter
Audio With Cast Members
Reviewer: Tim Isaac
