Remember Me begins very well. There is a n'er-do-well kid Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) who bumps around Greenwich Village with a loser roommate drinking, working at the Strand and auditing classes at NYU. He and the roommate get arrested one night for talking back to a nasty cop and his rich dad (Pierce Brosnan) bails him out of the lock-up.
It seems he and his father don't get along well because his father is a sonofabitch and unloving. His family has been shattered by the suicide of his older brother several years before and all Tyler cares about now is his 11-year-old sister, Caroline (Ruby Jerins). When his roommate realizes that the daughter of the asshole cop, Ally (Emilie de Ravin), is a classmate of theirs, he gets Tyler to ask her out on a date, in hopes of getting revenge on her father. Of course the two fall madly in love with one another and their love story begins.
The script is pretty terrible. It's so recycled that you spend most of the film waiting for things you *know* are going to happen (like the big reveal when Tyler admits to Ally that he only asked her out to get back at her father, or the blow up when Tyler confronts his father for being a piece of shit). It's pretty awful.
Still, there are some moments in the film that I could only classify as *great*. After Tyler and Ally have sex, there is an overhead shot looking down at the two of them lying in bed (possibly an hour or so later). She rolls over to him and starts cuddling, and then they begin to go at it again. This might sound rather typical, but I gotta admit, I don't know if I've seen a frank sex moment like this in a long time (mostly on-screen sex is hot and then over and then a cut to the next scene). When real people (kids) have sex, they frequently cuddle after - and sometimes begin to go at it again.
As amazing as it sounds, the best thing in the film is the acting and the chemistry the actors have with one another. I have ranted in the past about how Robert Pattinson is a bad actor, but he is really believable and honest here. I totally bought that he is a semi-depressed kid looking for direction in his life. His loudest moments (like when he confronts his father about being a schmuck) are really good and reminiscent of Joaquin Phoenix at his best (or of Michael Shannon).
But more than his great performance is how he interacts with the other actors. He and Emilie de Ravin are absolutely magical together. They seem totally madly in love with each other. She's great too - though I only know her from Lost (where I thought she was generally overdone as the crazy Claire) and Brick (where she was good, but overshadowed by other more fantastic actors). Perhaps the most surprising acting comes from 11-year old Ruby Jerins. She's earnest and fragile and clearly very precocious. Her relationship with Pattinson is magnetic and fantastic. I look forward to seeing more from her in the future.
Of all the non-Americans playing New Yorkers here, surprisingly Brosnan (who I normally think is great) has the hardest time with his accent. He's supposed to have been born in Brooklyn, but his accent is somewhere between Ireland and the gutter. That's not the only problem with his character - he's totally ridiculously written. He's the worst father on earth and as a named partner of a law firm, is not able to get out of the office for a few minutes to go to his daughter's art show. This is so silly it's distracting. His character could have been a jerk without being this much of a jerk. This is just hard to buy.
But it does come back to the writing. The film has one of the worst endings in the history of cinema. It's cheap and ridiculous. There is no reason this couldn't just be a nice, if banal, love story. Instead it's a trite story with a horrible ending. How sad.
Stars: 2 of 4
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