Reviews, Reviews, Reviews... (Spoilers)
From Australia Herald Sun:
Remember Me (M) Director: Allen Coulter (Hollywoodland) Starring: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin Rating: *** Pretty boy pretty good
Put-up-or-shut-up time for Robert Pattinson is not officially scheduled until the sun finally sets on the Twilight phenomenon.
So fair play to the British heart-throb for skipping well ahead of the program and testing himself in trying circumstances for Remember Me.
Obviously very eager to prove he is more than just a poster-friendly face, Pattinson is on a mission here to flash some legit acting credentials.
In spite of the odd awkward moment in Remember Me, even the most churlish observer will have to admit the guy has got what it takes to stick around a while in this business.
In terms of story and style, Remember Me is best described as a dirty, downbeat distant relative of Dear John. Both films share the same turn-of-the-last-decade timeframe, and exploit a delicately distressed romance to simultaneously warm the heart and empty the tear ducts.
Pattinson plays Tyler Hawkins, a poor little rich boy student-slumming it in a grotty New York apartment to get back at his heartless tycoon of a dad (Pierce Brosnan).
Early on, heavy hints are dropped that Tyler has other, non-parent-baiting reasons for being such a chain-smoking, binge-drinking, babe-slaying no-hoper.
All will adequately explained in the fullness of time, particularly once Tyler softens up his hard-man act to start a relationship with cute classmate Ally (Emilie de Ravin).
In the interest of added complications, it also turns out that Tyler recently had a run-in with Ally’s father, a tough New York cop (Chris Cooper). Naturally, Tyler keeps this sensitive matter a secret until the worst possible moment.
So far, so relatively predictable then. Or so you would think. To be honest, Remember Me gets quite good quite quickly once it completes the business of sketching out its familiar storyline.
A good deal of time is spent getting to the bottom of Tyler and Ally’s respective family problems, and the payoff earned is genuinely compelling. And sincerely moving, too. The pairing of Pattinson with de Ravin is the key here. In their many scenes together, the stars effectively channel that unique "you and me against the world" vibe that young lovers everywhere know so well.
It is only when Pattinson breaks free of his leading lady’s intense gravitational pull that he sometimes misjudges his performance and tries some of James Dean’s old moves.
A scene where Tyler bursts into the school of his younger sister and roughs up one of her bullying classmates is an absolute howler. Then again, perhaps the script can be blamed. Not even Sean Penn at the height of his powers would have found a way to emerge with his dignity intact.
All in all, Remember Me is a faintly memorable romantic drama that proves there are bigger, better and not so pale-and-precious things to come from Robert Pattinson.
From Chicago Tribune:
Teenage audiences, particularly female, are likely to fall headlong into the dour romantic drama "Remember Me" because Robert Pattinson and his fwoopy hair, taking a break from the "Twilight" franchise, are both in it. And when you're a teenager, certainly when I was a teenager, confusing banality with profundity was practically a law.
Also, romances unfolding on the edge of a historic precipice hold a particular appeal to audiences, in a sick sort of way. We know what's coming and we feel pity (if the story's in any sort of working order) because we know so much more than the lovers do. "From Here to Eternity" had Pearl Harbor; "Titanic" had the iceberg; and "Remember Me" has a story taking place largely in New York City in the first half of 2001.
It stars Pattinson, who is frequently framed against a window, gazing at the summer sun while he deals with his own wintry emotions. Like many a screen rebel, this one has money issues: His family's wealth and expectations have crushed his soul. An NYU student and bookstore employee, Tyler (Pattinson) lives with a skeezy roommate (Tate Ellington) who dares him to ask out the daughter of the cop who recently arrested Tyler during a night on the town. The daughter, Ally, is played by Emilie de Ravin of "Lost"; the detective father is played by Chris Cooper.
The dialogue can drive you crazy with its self-consciousness. On their first date, Ally gravely intones that she always eats dessert first. "Is that a political statement or a medical condition?" Tyler asks. No, she says, "I just don't see the point in waiting."
Screenwriter Will Fetters has written character types, as opposed to specific characters. "Remember Me" is a strange case of a film made by an interesting director, Allen Coulter, whose "Hollywoodland" was an underrated LA noir, working with an interesting cast. That's not the same thing as saying everybody onscreen seems to belong to the same universe. Pierce Brosnan's "Guys and Dolls" accent limits an already limited conception of his Wall Street businessman, while Pattinson — a good actor, though the movie can't quit enshrining his brooding skills — struggles to find a through-line to this generalized notion of F. Scott Fitzgerald/J.D. Salinger raw youth.
The message is clear: Live for the moments or, as the marketing tag line puts it, "live in the moments." Some moments work, especially those featuring young actress Ruby Jerins as Tyler's bright, shunned younger sister. But the more you wait for the biggest plot development of the last decade to reduce everybody's problems to a hill of beans, the more "Remember Me" starts to make you feel cheap.
From Orlando Sentinel:
As a package pandering to members of the Rah Rah Rob Pattinson Fan Club, Remember Me showcases the Twilight hottie in all his zoned-out, sideburned, hair-tossled and chin-flexing glory.
Pattinson is placed in a romantic setting, gets to smoke and play tough, gallant and troubled. And if there are no fangs, Team Edward can still imagine them there.
But Pattinson’s fussy, affected acting, his grab bag of screen mannerisms and a script that has him lurching between moony romantic and wild-eyed psychotic do nothing to suggest dude has a prayer of a fangless career.
A more “adult” romantic melodrama that pushes the boundaries of how sexual you can get without earning an R-rating, Remember Me smashes mushy up against mental illness. Pattinson plays Tyler, a morose, aimless and seemingly bipolar hunk who dotes on his much younger sister, mourns a dead brother, gets into fights just to feel something and dates a cop’s daughter just to get back at the NYPD detective (Chris Cooper) who roughed him up.
But this girl (Emilie de Ravin) isn’t to be trifled with. She’s interested, even though he asks her out with his face all beaten up. She stays interested after seeing his violent temper and his moods and meeting his jerk workaholic dad (Pierce Brosnan) and needy little sister (Ruby Jerins).
But someday, he’s going to cross paths with her dad, who will remember him. Someday he’s going to find out why she never rides the subway — 10 years before, in 1991, her mom was murdered right in front of her. And eventually, as a viewer, you’ll do the math adding 10 years to 1991 and figure out where this contraption is headed.
A huge problem is the script by Will Fetters, who apparently used this as a means of landing the assignment of re-writing A Star is Born. When Tyler’s obnoxious and not-even-remotely-funny doofus roommate (Tate Ellington, poorly playing a badly written cliché of a role) talks him into dating the cop’s daughter out of revenge, this is what passes for cute and witty.
“What do you want me to do? Kidnap her?”
“What? No. We don’t have the closet space!”
A saving grace here is Brosnan, finding his post-Bond niche not in musicals but in playing perfectly coiffed power-suited jerks. His scenes with Tyler are over-the-top, shouting matches in the middle of high-powered business meetings, but Brosnan keeps his icy, uncaring cool.
Director Allen Coulter made his mark with Hollywoodland, but unlike Brosnan, he hitched onto the Pattinson popularity express and brought nothing to the ride. The film’s tone is all wrong, the pacing is dead and the veering between sex, sadness and sado-masochistic violence is enough to give you motion sickness. It’s a bad movie. And considering how much RPattz smokes during it, it may turn out to be worse for him than mere career-battering reviews. His fangs may turn yellow.
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