Review: Remember Me

PLOT: A rebellious young man (Robert Pattinson) falls in love with a young woman (Emilie de Ravin) with an over-protective father (Chris Cooper), and a tragic past. Meanwhile, he also has to contend with his own emotionally distant father (Pierce Brosnan).

REVIEW: It’s hard to review REMEMBER ME without discussing the much buzzed about ending, but I’m going to try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible. Until the last ten minutes, REMEMBER ME is exactly what the trailers make it look like; a slight, and predictable love story.

The storyline is like something right out of a Nicholas Sparks novel, where R-Patt, no doubt to the delight of many TWI-hards, broods and broods, until finally meeting a similarly broody young woman. Naturally, the girl has an ‘adorable’ quirky side, which means she likes to eat desert BEFORE meals. Ho-hum.

Of course, there’s got to be some conflict somewhere along the line, so a lame subplot is included where R-Patt is roughed up by the girl’s cop father, making the girl believe Pattinson is only with her to get back at her dad. Of course, young Pattinson’s heart is true, which I’m sure will send many a Team Edward members hearts aflutter.

In the lead, Robert Pattinson is OK, with him obviously trying to branch out a bit from TWILIGHT, but I didn’t really care for his James Dean-wannabe act. He spends the movie sulking around New York, trying to look cool with a cigarette dangling off his lips, but I didn’t buy it for a second. Like his TWILIGHT co-star, Taylor Lautner, Pattinson’s got no edge. I wouldn’t say he’s a bad actor, or talent less, but his sulky act is unintentionally hilarious, and he needs to take a page from Kristen Stewart, and get a few interesting indies under his belt if he ever wants to move past the TWILIGHT franchise.

His co-star, Emilie de Ravin, also hails from a massive sci-fi franchise- LOST, and she’s pretty good here, and pulls off a fairly convincing American accent. As the parents, the filmmakers were able to get two heavy hitters, with a slumming Chris Cooper playing de Ravin’s overly protective pop, and Pierce Brosnan (sporting an atrocious “noo-yawk” accent) as Pattinson’s similarly sulky daddy.

Perhaps these two veterans were brought in by the fact that this is directed by Allen Coulter, who previous pulled a career-best performance out of Ben Affleck in the under-rated HOLLYWOODLAND, and also made a name directing numerous episodes of THE SOPRANOS. I don’t think Coulter’s such a good match to the material, as he tries a little too hard to make this sappy lover story gritty. Having Coulter direct this is like having someone like Sidney Lumet direct THE NOTEBOOK. It just doesn’t work.

However, nothing could have prepared me for the ambush ending Coulter and co., had in store for me, with many fellow critics at the press screening I saw this with reacting with the same level of repulsion I felt after getting a load of it. It’s probably the most absurd, manipulative ending I’ve ever seen, and I’d be willing to bet that once this thing opens in New York, it’ll be booed off the screen. The ending is shameless, as a result, it turns what would have been a 5/10 movie into a big fat 0. I’ve seen a lot of bad movies since I’ve started review films for JoBlo.com, but never been as offended as I was sitting through the finale of this reprehensible piece of garbage. Something like COP OUT might be a bad film, but at worst it’s a waste of time, and, in the end, is inoffensive. REMEMBER ME is something else. Everyone involved with the film should be ashamed of themselves for stooping to such an exploitative ambush ending that uses one of the most tragic events in recent history as a plot device.

Shame on them.

RATING minus the shitty ending: 5/10
RATING with the shitty ending: 0/10