Remember Me (2010)
Directed by Allen Coulter
Still reeling from a heartbreaking family event and his parents' subsequent divorce, Tyler Hawkins discovers a fresh lease on life when he meets Ally Craig, a gregarious beauty who witnessed her mother's death. But as the couple draws closer, the fallout from their separate tragedies jeopardizes their love.
12 connections found
View:
12 films that influenced Remember Me
What critics say influenced Remember Me
He moves through the film like he considers this is "Rebel Without A Cause," and since both he and de Ravin have to contend with their fathers (Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper, repectively) as major parts of their pain in the film, the "Rebel" comparison is particularly apt.
But when he meets a relentlessly quirky working-class girl (Emilie De Ravin) with her own daddy issues, his "Rebel Without a Cause" mantle begins to slip.
Screenwriter Will Fetters and director Allen Coulter obviously had memories of Nicolas Ray’s “Rebel Without a Cause” (1965) in mind here, envisioning Pattinson as this generation’s James Dean.
Just like Dean’s character Jimmy Stark in “Rebel Without a Cause,” Tyler suffers from perpetual melancholy and disaffection, lacking a place he can relax and call home.
In “Remember Me,” Robert Pattinson, the producer and leading man, displays genuine acting chops as a “Rent”-related cousin of the “Rebel Without a Cause.”
Like James Dean smoking and brooding through Rebel Without a Cause, Robert Pattinson puffs and sulks - often, impressively, at the same time - in the intense romantic drama Remember Me.
It's hard to say how much of this is the fault of first-time screenwriter William Fetters, who doesn't seem to release that Tyler is mostly an unjustified crybaby, and how much is the fault of Pattinson, who appears to have heard that there was once this fellow named Marlon Brando, but does not seem to have gone out of his way to watch The Wild One , and thus his performance consists only of directionless angry mutterings.
As a shameless contraption of ridiculously sad things befalling attractive people, the engorged romantic tragedy Remember Me stands tall between those towering monuments to teen-oriented cinematic misery, Love Story and Twilight: Beginning with a shock of urban violence set on a subway platform in 1991, then moving forward to a balmy New York City summer a decade later, the movie is one part ''Love means never having to say you're sorry'' and one part Edward's warning to Bella: ''If you're smart, you'll stay away from me.''
In his first official post-Twilight-craze-outing, Robert Pattinson stars as Tyler, the black sheep of a well to do family torn apart by the suicide of their eldest son, with Pattinson stuck in a permanent melancholy while sucking down a never ending amount of booze and cigarettes.
They somehow snared " Twilight " hottie Robert Pattinson .
Remember Me makes for a decent graduation for Twilight fans now ready for actual adult emotions, but anyone older than the central characters-- and really, most smart 22-year-olds too-- will recognize the movie is full of hot air.
If the actor took hits for "Little Ashes" and "New Moon," this one at least shows he's capable of something other than "Twilight," even if Coulter lets the melodrama bubble over.
Last year, he played a decadent, bisexual Salvador Dali in Little Ashes , Paul Morrison’s drama about the artist’s formative years in Madrid; in his latest film, the romantic drama Remember Me , he smokes, drinks, has premarital sex, and engages in a variety of other unwholesome activities that would surely appall the saintly Edward.
Pattinson was woefully miscast as Salvador Dali in last year's Little Ashes , but playing a contemporary, brooding and lost young man in Remember Me shows that he has more range than is visible in his one-dimensional role as a sexy vampire.
Advertisement
Set in the early ‘aughts, Remember Me is a simple romance for swooners, but screenwriter Will Fetters wins points for noting that two lovers bring with them a clashing mess of family and friends who interfere in major strokes (a la Romeo and Juliet) but also in the subtle, common inheritances in how we connect, fight and protect ourselves.
In the wobbly "Ordinary People" retread "Remember Me," RPattz does stake his claim to be compared to a famous actor: Hayden Christensen.
Director Allen Coulter (“Hollywoodland,” “The Sopranos”) seems to believe he’s found a contemporary “Ordinary People,” with romance in place of psychiatry, and admirably strives for emotional authenticity in every relationship.
Neil Craig (Chris Cooper, "Breach") roughs him up and hauls he and Aidan in as well.
His Tyler is twitchy, trigger-tempered, and believably (read: sulkily) 21, which might have been insufferable without his keen comic delivery of the frequently funny script (Rachel Getting Married screenwriter Jenny Lumet reportedly pinch-hit).
Advertisement
Emilie de Ravin (2006's " The Hills Have Eyes ") is sympathetic and low-key as Ally, but also unassumingly captivating.
Those who relish him as a lovesick bloodsucker will surely take issue, but until Remember Me, his best acting job was as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .