Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Remember Me - **


Remember Me is a strange movie.

In it, we have a great coming-of-age story about a tormented college-age guy with no direction, filled with interesting characters, excellent camerawork, and, unlike last year's (500) Days of Summer, a romantic fling that doesn't feel so contrived and pedestrian. The worst part about it is that I can't really say anything more without ruining the experience for you because there is an event that takes place, a real-life event, that is so jarring when it happens because it just doesn't fit. You'd know exactly what I'm talking about if you saw it, and I don't want you to go into the movie expecting it. To solve this problem, I will simply skate around it and finish this review without ever having mentioned the actual event that I am making reference to. However, I will make several hints at it.

The film opens on a subway platform. In the background, we can see the twin towers of the World Trade Center. In the end, the main character is in an office on the 86th floor of a building in the middle of Manhattan. This all takes place on a Tuesday in the middle of September of 2001. This is where the event that I mentioned earlier occurs.

The sad fact remains that there are thousands of true stories that could have been made, some of which we've already seen (twice in 2006!), and they're probably all better than this one. We've also seen this device before, and it always leaves an awful taste in a viewer's mouth. Who wants to be tricked into seeing a movie about this? And why? Why did it have to be this event? It could have been anything else and would still have been just as "memorable", at least in his family's case.

Remember Me isn't a terrible movie, though. The first 90 minutes are engaging and showcase a very talented young actor in Pattinson. I didn't ever think I'd say that, after everything I'd heard about the Twilight series. At the very least, this movie makes me not dread seeing Eclipse so much. So, thanks for that.

But that fucking ending.

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