Remember Me
If it had not already been used, a better title for Remember Me would have been "A Series of Unfortunate Events". This is an old fashioned romantic tear-jerker that follows two beautiful people who fall in love, and then have a lot of terrible stuff happen to them. Actually, a lot of terrible stuff happens to them before they've even met each other. I guess we're supposed to be impressed with how their love stays strong, despite everything going on around them. The romantic leads are likeable enough, but mainly only when they're together, and not being manipulated by the melodramatic plot, which doesn't happen often enough.
The lovers at the center of all this tragedy and woe are Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) and Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin from TV's Lost). They certainly do have chemistry together up on the screen, but the movie seems afraid to use it. Instead, it puts them through a lot of contrived situations. Tyler is a "bad boy with a heart of gold". We know he's supposed to be a bad boy, because he constantly has two-day-old facial stubble on his chin, drinks and smokes a lot, is rebellious to his estranged and emotionally distant father (Pierce Brosnan), and gets involved in a street fight. To be fair, Tyler only got involved in the fight in order to help someone. But, when the police show up, he mouths off to one of the officers. The officer is Neil Craig (Chris Cooper), and he's a hard-headed blowhard who exists in the movie only to be wrong at all times, or to take things the wrong way. He throws Tyler in jail for the night for getting in his way during the questioning.
Tyler's not a bad guy, really. He loves his mother (Lena Olin) and is supportive and loving toward his artistically-gifted little sister, Caroline (Ruby Jerins). But, there's a lot of turmoil at home. Tyler's still grieving over the death of his older brother, who killed himself years ago, and is angry at his dad for...I don't know, really. Yeah, his dad's a jerk, but we never really get a lot of information as to why the father is so cold and cynical toward his family. Meanwhile, we're introduced to Ally, who just happens to be the daughter of the cop who busted Tyler that night. In an opening prologue, we witness the night Ally was a little girl, and saw her mother get gunned down by some muggers in a subway waiting area. This makes her dad fiercely protective of her. Regardless, Tyler and Ally meet. Their meeting is arranged by Tyler's best friend/roommate/comic relief sidekick, Aidan (Tate Ellington). He figures out that Ally is the daughter of the cop who threw Tyler in jail, and thinks they should get revenge by having Tyler pretend to be interested in her, date her, then dump her. Yeah, I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it either. Anyway, Tyler and Ally date and, wouldn't you know it, really do fall for each other.
What follows is a fairly routine romantic drama that doesn't really offend, but something seems funny at the same time. Remember Me certainly seems obsessed with dates, and there seems to be an invisible clock ticking down to a certain event that will play a big part of the lives in the characters, and everyone else in the world. I'm doing my best not to spoil, but the movie begins when Ally witnesses her mother's death as a child back in 1991. The movie then flashes forward to 10 years later. It's almost summer we learn. The months tick by. Tyler and Ally share birthdays, balmy summer nights, and even spend Labor Day together. It doesn't take long for us to figure out what date in September of 2001 it's leading up to. It keeps on giving us not-so-subtle reminders of the passing of time, and just when exactly the story is supposed to take place. (We hear George W. Bush giving a speech on stem cell research on the TV. Tyler and Aidan are watching American Pie 2 in a theater in one scene, which just happened to come out in...gasp...August 2001!!) It really is a distracting method of foreshadowing. The only way it could be less subtle is if it had the Angel of Death itself hovering over our stars.
It's distracting, because this is supposed to be a simple and sweet love story, and it's hard to concentrate on that with the constant knowledge of what's coming. It's too bad, because Pattinson and de Ravin have some nice moments together. De Ravin especially brings a real star quality to her role, and I'd like to see her in other things. As for Pattinson, he tends to fly a little into ham-fisted melodrama a little too often, but he can be good during his more intimate scenes with his female co-star. It's when he's forced to act alongside veterans like Brosnan or Cooper that his performance doesn't measure up. Really, there's not a lot to complain about. This is a well-made movie, the performances there, and the characters are easy enough to care for when they're not being strung along by the mechanical plot.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home