“Remember Me” is Romantic and Idiotic at the Same Time

SPOILER WARNING. Some parts of the following article reveal major plot lines.

Robert Pattinson is known to many as one of the “Twilight” jackasses. “Remember Me” is his first major release outside the tween craze, and it delivers some romantic scenes and one of the most idiotic endings to a movie in recent memory.

Tyler Hawkins (Pattinson) is an NYU student who lives with his friend Aiden (Tate Ellington). After getting in a bar fight, they are arrested by Officer Neil Craig (Chris Cooper). Aiden suggests Tyler goes out with Craig’s daughter Ally (Emilie de Ravin, “LOST”), a fellow NYU student.

The two meet, get along fast, until Neil hits Ally and she moves in with Tyler. The two fall in love. Things become rocky when Tyler’s dad (Pierce Brosnan) creates some strife amongst the family and Ally finds out why Tyler originally asked her out.

The romance between Tyler and Ally feels very natural and moves along at a good pace. There is surprisingly a lot of humor, and it comes naturally as well. It’s insanely fun to watch Pierce Brosnan be a major ass, and it’s obvious he is enjoying himself immensely.

Pattinson shows some hints of having some actual acting chops, while other times showing why he is relegated to trash like “Twilight.” If he picks his roles carefully, he could become a great actor. Emilie de Ravin gives us tons of reasons to feel for her and shows she can act in serious movies.

Plot wise, the movie fumbles a little bit. The audience isn’t given a reason to feel for Tyler until about half way through, while we feel for Ally right away. The pacing is terrible, making the two hours feel like three.

All isn’t bad though, especially the family progression which feels natural and not forced. When the family starts to improve their lives, it doesn’t seem out of place. Brosnan’s character development is the best, being fun to watch and very believable.

[SPOILER WARNING]

Something needs to be said about the ending though. Throughout the movie, it’s made evident that it is 2001. With the Twin Towers being in the background to the use of cell phones, we are shown many times it is 2001. This doesn’t make any sense until the ending, when Tyler is shown being in one of the towers right before the first plane is about to hit.

Why the writers decided to do this is beyond me, and feels like they wrote themselves into a corner and couldn’t think up anything except this. Anything would have been better than this. What makes it even worse is that the emotional side is not even explored through the other characters. This could have been a perfect chance to show how the victims of 9/11 reacted and went on with their lives; but no, they spend maybe five minutes describing how each character deals with Tyler’s death. Some day a film will be made showing the reactions of the family members of 9/11 victims, but this is not it by far.

“Remember Me” is an OK date movie. It’s not the best, but not the worst.

Overall, “Remember Me” gets a 2.5 out of 5.