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Remember Me
By John Mulderig
Source: Catholic News Service
Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin star in a scene from the movie "Remember Me." |
Despite its title, "Remember Me" (Summit) is a less than memorable romantic drama set in the New York of the early 2000s. Nor is its premise particularly original, since it traces a relationship that begins for all the wrong reasons only to blossom into a genuine and passionate attachment.
Things get off to a fractious start when angst-ridden twentysomething New York bohemian Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) has an altercation with a no-nonsense police officer, Sgt. Neil Craig (Chris Cooper), leaving the slacker with a badly bruised face, a brief stint in jail and an interest in revenge.
When chance brings Tyler and Craig's daughter, New York University student Ally (Emilie de Ravin), into contact, Tyler, egged on by his roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington), approaches her for a date, presumably—though somewhat improbably—hoping to humiliate her father by stringing Ally along, then dumping her.
Instead, of course, the two get starry-eyed, bonding over mutual putdowns, cutesy practical jokes and—far more seriously—the personal tragedies that continue to haunt each of them, namely the early death of Tyler's brother and the violent mugging and murder of Ally's mother, which Ally witnessed as a young girl.
Along with portraying Tyler's father Charles (Pierce Brosnan) as a far from credible caricature of a work-obsessed, emotionally indifferent, but highly successfully lawyer, and glamorizing Tyler and Ally's premature sexual union, as well as their eventual shacking up, Will Fetters' script, as directed by Allen Coulter, moves toward a climax related to real-life events that many will find distastefully manipulative.
The film contains cohabitation, passionate but nongraphic premarital sexual activity, a couple of uses of profanity, some sexual references and jokes, including a promiscuous character, frequent smoking, at least one drug reference and a few rough and numerous crude terms. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III—adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13—parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
*****
John Mulderig is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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