Country: USA
Genre: Drama / Romance
Direction: Allen Coulter
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin, Tate Ellington, Ruby Jerins, Pierce Brosnan
yler, a rebellious young man in New York City, has a strained relationship with his father ever since tragedy separated their family. Tyler didn't think anyone could possibly understand what he was going through until the day he met Ally through an unusual twist of fate. Love was the last thing on his mind, but as her spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him, he begins to fall for her. Through their love, he begins to find happiness and meaning in his life. But soon, hidden secrets are revealed, and the circumstances that brought them together slowly threaten to tear them apart. Remember Me is an unforgettable story about the power of love, the strength of family, and the importance of living passionately and treasuring every day of one's life.
Download Remember Me (2010)
Movie Review:
"Remember Me," from its forgettable title to its by-the-numbers story structure, feels every bit like a student film project adapted by a big-league director and a star-heavy cast.
It's polished and earnest and in parts shows promise of a strong storytelling voice. But even with the sure hand of director Allen Coulter ("Hollywoodland" and "The Sopranos") at the helm, the mature star power of Pierce Brosnan, Lena Olin, Chris Cooper and Kate Burton and the smoldering hot presence of heartthrob-of-the-moment Robert Pattinson in its favor, the film comes off as slightly half-baked.
Drawn from a jam-packed screenplay by young first-timer Will Fetters, "Remember Me" sets its tale in a robust New York City milieu, circa summer and early fall of 2001.
In a grainy flashback to a decade before, the story starts with a cold-blooded mugging and murder on a late-night subway platform, a crime witnessed by cute, blond, 11-year-old Alyssa and investigated by hard-nosed homicide detective Sgt. Neil Craig (Cooper), who just happens to be the victim's husband.
Leap ahead to 2001, and we pick up 21-year-old Ally (Emilie de Ravin of "Lost" fame), a precocious sociology major who is still living at home with her overly protective policeman dad.
In a parallel narrative thread, we're introduced to Pattinson's rebellious college student Tyler Hawkins, who has his issues with an overbearing but emotionally distant father (Brosnan, sporting a hard-edged Brooklyn accent).
Through contrivances and coincidences that groan like cogs in a machine, Tyler has a late-night, bloody-nose clash with Craig and a few days later strikes up a cute campus flirtation with Ally, who doesn't know this sexy hunk's history with her dad.
Soon enough, a steamy romance fires up between Ally, who moves out on her suspicious father, and Tyler, who takes in Ally as a third roommate in the dumpy East Village apartment he shares with charming, mischief-making buddy Aiden .
Naturally, this Romeo-Juliet dynamic sets up fierce confrontations between Tyler and Craig, between Tyler and his unctuous tycoon dad, between Tyler and virtually everyone else. He is indeed a rebel with a cause, which is to brood angrily over the suicide death years earlier of his beloved older brother and to blame his distant father for ignoring him and his adorable, eccentric, artsy little sister, Caroline (enchanting Ruby Jerins).
The cast is stellar throughout, and Pattinson, under white-hot spotlight, acquits himself quite well in a part that requires him to be smoldering and rage-filled throughout, until turning toward too-easy reconciliation. Even the deft Brosnan has trouble pulling off his late-scene change of heart with any real sense of legitimacy.
The script angles toward a supposedly "Wow!" ending that feels thuddingly inevitable, if not obvious, in hindsight. And the climax is belabored by a sappy musical score and dragged out with misty montages to a decidedly uncomfortable degree. The harshest critics might even view it as cruel, blatant exploitation.
But "Remember Me" isn't really venal. It's just obvious, clumsily manipulative and, despite all the blazing star power brought to bear, not all that memorable.
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