Remember Me (2010)

Number Rolled: 25

Movie Name/Year: Remember Me (2010)

Tagline: Live in the moments.

Genre: Romance, Drama

Length: 112 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Production Companies: Summit Entertainment

Producer: Carol Cuddy, Trevor Engelson, Michael Lannan, Nick Osborne, Robert Pattinson

Director: Allen Coulter

Writer: Will Fetters

Actors: Caitlyn Rund, Chris Cooper, Robert Pattinson, Tate Ellington, Emilie de Ravin, Ruby Jerins, Lena Olin, Gregory Jbara, Pierce Brosnan, Meghan Markle, Chris McKinney, Kate Burton, Martha Plimpton

Stunt Doubles: Paul Darnell, Samantha MacIvor

Blurb from Netflix: Tyler’s still feeling lost following the tragedy that’s strained his relationship with his father when he meets Ally, a girl who understands his pain.

Selina’s Point of View:

Holy balls, that took a hard left turn.

I’m writing this forty-five minutes later and my eyes are still wet. That film went in a completely different direction than I expected it to.

I’m going to stick to talking about the beginning and the middle right now, because the ending might as well have been another movie altogether.

To start off with, it was pretty much what you would expect from a romantic drama. In fact, the beginning was so normal that it could have been the start of any romantic drama out there. I particularly liked the pick-up lines Robert Pattinson (The Lost City of Z, Cosmopolis, Little Ashes), as Tyler, had to issue when he first met Emilie de Ravin’s (Once Upon a Time, Love and Other Trouble, The Perfect Game) character. They were such bullshit, dorky lines. However, it’s because Pattinson’s character was not smooth that it made sense.

I hate going into a rom-com or rom-dram and watching the supposedly nervous guy be so smooth that his shit clearly doesn’t stink. That was not an issue here.

Pattinson isn’t even an actor I really like, but I enjoyed his part in Remember Me. I respected his chemistry with Tate Ellington (Shameless, The Endless, Straight Outta Compton), the actor playing Tyler’s best friend, and Ravin – but it was his interaction with Pierce Brosnan (No Escape, Survivor, The Love Punch) that had me glued to the screen a lot of the time. Not just because I totally related to the speech Pattinson’s character gave at one point… though that helped.

I’m kind of stalling because I don’t know what to write about that ending. How the hell do I do it justice?

The most I can really tell you, without issuing spoilers, is that I didn’t even consider the possibility of the ending. It caught me so off-guard that my mouth was hanging open the whole time. As I’ve said, it could have been the end to a different movie. I don’t mean it was off topic or that it didn’t fit, I mean that they took life and made this film reflect the unpredictability. That is not an easy thing to do. Especially successfully.

That’s what this whole review comes down to. Remember Me was successful. It was a tearjerker that broke my heart over and over again while keeping me riveted.

Cat’s Point of View:

Wow.

I’m actually reeling a bit in the wake of watching this movie.

That’s not a bad thing, though, I promise. I just couldn’t have seen the ending coming even if it was the speeding freight train I was standing on the tracks of – and it feels like it hit me like that, too.

I’m going to admit that I underestimated this movie a little. Scratch that. A lot. Given that this was filmed during a time when Robert Pattinson (Water for Elephants, Bel Ami, Queen of the Desert) was on top of the world because he could be broody and sparkle, I guess I expected that this would fall into the same sort of romantic drama recipe – sans supernatural glitter-bugs.

Boy was I wrong.

Pattinson really didn’t get much of a chance to shine in the tales of wand-wielding wizard school – there was just too much else going on. This movie offered up so many opportunities to show his range through a whole gauntlet of emotions – which he delivered believably. I was sucked into the story; and even found myself worried about, and rooting for his character. Not to mention Emilie de Ravin’s (The Hills Have Eyes, Lost, The Submarine Kid). She displayed her character’s strength and vulnerability beautifully.

The supporting cast here was also great.

I was jazzed that we had two Pierce Brosnan (The World's End, Urge, The Son) movies this week. Surprisingly, I liked this much more than the one we watched for Monday. Tate Ellington (The Kitchen, Sinister 2, Quantico) was an epic best friend slash roommate, as well.

I’m not saying that the film didn’t play on some of the well-established romantic drama tropes. I am saying, however, that it put a new spin on the old recipe to give it a kick – right to the feels. I really have to tip my hat to the screenwriter, Will Fetters (Georgetown, The Lucky One, The Best of Me), for this one. There were so many little nuances in the story that spell a bigger picture than was just hiding in plain sight.

I would definitely recommend this movie in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can watch it again after it already stomped on my feels already.

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 27%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 68%

Metascore - 40/100

Metacritic User Score – 7.7/10

IMDb Score – 7.2/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4.5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5

Movie Trailer: