Remember Me (2010) starring Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper, Tate Ellington, Pierce Brosnan, Ruby Jerins, Lena Olin, Gregory Jbara directed by Allen Coulter Movie Review

Remember Me (2010)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin in Remember Me (2010)

I Want to Forget

Trust me I won't be forgetting "Remember Me" but not because I was impressed with it and in fairness not because I thought it was terrible. In fact I quite likes director Allen Coulter's vision, he crafted a nice looking movie with some decent visuals and a perfect pacing which disguise the fact that for the first 100 minutes "Remember Me" is little more than cliches. Nope the reason why I won't be forgetting "Remember Me" is I hated the twist ending, the Nicolas Sparks style finale because to put it simply it was for me crass.

Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson - The Twilight Saga: New Moon) is a young man with issues, or at least issues towards his father which simmer beneath the surface ever since his brother Michael committed suicide. Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin - Public Enemies) is the daughter of Sgt. Neil Craig (Chris Cooper) who as an 11 year old girl witnessed her mother's murder by two muggers. Through an incident which sees Neil arrest Tyler he ends up trying to chat Ally up, successfully doing so but with an ulterior motive of getting his own back on her father. But these two tortured souls end up helping each other mend issues within their lives, except tragedy is not far away.

Emilie de Ravin and Robert Pattinson in Remember Me (2010)

So "Remember Me" is an 100 minutes romantic drama which trades on some well used cliches and then for the final 13 minutes we enter Nicholas Sparks territory. Those first 100 minutes basically serve up not only a series of tortured souls, struggling with deep family issues but we also get the romantic bet, the one which is more often used in romantic comedies where one guy asks a girl out on a bet by his mate, falls in love and shock horror when she finds out she is upset. It is basically that and nothing else and as we go through the drama of Ally and Tyler falling in love slowly personal issues with family members begin to mend especially when something happens to Tyler's little sister. I suppose if you are new to movies this will seem like some great romantic drama when in truth it isn't.

Now there is the Nicholas Sparks part of the movie, the final 13 minutes and in fairness through out the first half there are some unsubtle clues to be seen. Then again maybe those who end up swept up by the romantic melodrama will miss these less than subtle references when you put 2 and 2 together you can spot the ending long before the ominous music appears. Now I'm not opposed to these Nicholas Sparks style endings, in fact I like many of the movies based on Sparks' books but what comes in "Remember Me" is crass, simple as that.

Now I am pretty sure I will have incurred the wrath of some people who watched this because it features Robert Pattinson and so love it but it's the truth. And in truth Pattinson played his part well, moody looking whilst longingly staring into the distance or delivering a bit of warmth when Tyler is with Ally. And talking of Ally, Emilie de Ravin plays her part equally as well as do all the cast which also includes Chris Cooper, Tate Ellington and Pierce Brosnan but none of the performances are amazing, just solid for a romantic drama.

The thing is that "Remember Me" owes a lot to director Allen Coulter because he has crafted a good looking movie, he captures the romantic tone nicely and there are several impressively shot scenes. But when the twist comes it all goes to pot for me with the ominous music signposting the forth coming tragedy long before it arrives.

What this all boils down to is that whilst visually I was impressed by "Remember Me" the actual story didn't do it for me especially when it comes to the twist which for me is wrong, simply wrong. But I know there are those who will love this; it's just not for me.


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