The film ‘Remember Me’ has been sitting in our drawer of DVDs to watch - either new ones, or those we haven’t seen for eight or nine years or more. We haven’t previously seen ‘Remember Me’, but neither of us can remember how we acquired it. Possibly from a church sale, or a thrift store. The blurb on the back made it sound quite heavy going, but last night, we finally decided to watch it.
I wasn’t sure I was going to like it in the early scenes. The film opens in 1991 with a young woman being mugged and then shot at a railways station, leaving a weeping daughter and devastated husband.
It then moves ten years later, where we meet Tyler (Robert Pattison) who is a college student, and who also works in a book shop. He and his friend Aidan (Tate Ellington) share a rather grungy apartment, and are out one evening when they get involved in some street violence. The police are contacted, but Tyler isn’t at all happy with how the situation is resolved, and gets into conflict with Neil (Chris Cooper). Neil is the bereaved husband from 1991, and who is evidently violent and judgemental.
Tyler’s father (Pierce Brosnan) is a wealthy businessman who gets into a lot of arguments with his son, and more-or-less ignores his nine-year-old daughter Caroline (Ruby Jerins). We quickly learn that Tyler had an older brother, Michael, who committed suicide a few years earlier. Tyler is still grieving, and is very protective of his sister. She’s rather a dreamer, and an artistic prodigy, and isn’t just neglected by her father, she’s bullied at school.
And then there’s Ally (Emilie de Ravin), Neil’s daughter, who lost her mother in the opening scenes. She’s a student too, in some of the same classes as Tyler. And Aiden suggests that his friend ask her out, and then treat her badly, to take revenge on her father. Tyler is reluctant, but finds Ally very attractive…
The back of the DVD says that this film is ‘terrifically powerful, hugely moving and totally compelling’. While blurbs often exaggerate, we thought this one absolutely correct. Despite my initial reservations, I was soon totally absorbed in the storyline. It’s quite heavy in places and I didn’t like the violence, nor the shocking ending. But there are some light-hearted scenes as Tyler and Ally’s friendship develops, and some clever dialogue. Then the subplots involving Caroline are poignant and moving, and provide an excellent contrast to the more active, often aggressive scenes involving Tyler.
We didn’t see the ending coming, until right before the climax. It would be a spoiler to give any hints - suffice it to say that I felt slightly cheated at first, but then realised how very powerful it was as a storyline. We watched the ‘making of’ documentary, which explained why the scriptwriter used a significant incident and made a film around it, bringing ordinary, flawed but likeable characters to life, to make the point about ordinary people being involved in unexpected situations.
The acting is excellent, the pace exactly right, the conversation believable. It’s a film we won’t forget; I don’t know if we’ll want to see it again in another few years, or whether it would be difficult to see it, knowing what was coming. But it’s one I would recommend, if only for a piece of important American social history.
The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US), which slightly surprises me; I’d have thought 15 would be more appropriate. The violent scenes are unpleasant, the scenes of intimacy quite drawn-out (albeit showing nothing explicit) and there’s some bad language, as well as quite disturbing themes. Definitely not for impressionable children or sensitive teens.
But for older teens and adults, definitely recommended.
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