Remember Me

Seen at: Cinemark 16 in Ft. Collins, last Sunday afternoon

This year I took the occassion of the first day of Spring to do some hiking up in the Big Thompson Canyon, in Roosevelt National Forest. I'd rented a pair of Black Diamond trekker poles from REI, and I wanted to try them out in the recent snowfall, to see if I wanted to purchase a pair. After a jaunt up to the overlook on the Round Mountain trail, I decided that only an idiot would ever go hiking without them.

In the afternoon, after a wonderful outing, I rolled up to the Cinemark to see a show. I love seeing movies this way---just arriving and seeing whatever is showing next. Actually I cheated a little because I knew that Remember Me was showing there, and that since it wasn't showing at the Carmike, it meant that I better make it priority before it leaves town.

This ending to this movie was spoiled for me on the Internet before I even knew anything about it. Given the subject matter, I was glad it was spoiled, because it gave me a chance to look at the film while knowing in advance the fate of the protagonist (Robert Pattinson, from the Twilight movies), and the final twist.

(start spoilers here)

This is 9/11 movie, to be sure, but what's good about it is that it doesn't try to say everything about 9/11. Instead it looks at the life of one person who winds up being killed in the attacks.

The story kept me going without flagging. I was surprised to enjoy Pattinson in this role. His "listless young man" character (who of course works at the Strand Bookstore in the Village!) has more than a dash of Holden Caulfield in his character, especially when he is interacting with his younger sister (who is about ten years old, an age that many young women in the audience of this movie would have been at the time of 9/11). In a way, it is the younger sister through whom the sentimental "memory story" of the memory is cast.

I also noticed in this movie that both characters of the love story are supposed to be Irish-American (see the map of Ireland next to Chris Cooper in one scene). This lends a patina of Celtic mourning to the story, in an oblique way.

The casting was well done. It's always pleasing to see Pierce Brosnan as well, the second time this month. Here he is Pattinson's father, a powerful businessman who does not think much of what his son is doing. Brosnan is my favorite "actor's actor" who will apparently attempt any role (including being a centaur in the recent Percy Jackson release). Here he does a New York accent that doesn't really work, but that's about the only overt negative I can say about this movie.

Chris Cooper, another of my favorite supporting actors, was exactly in his element here, and reminded me of his role in American Beauty (1999), a movie that I have long thought of us as "America on the eve of 9/11."

Can't forget a surprise supporting appearance by Lena Olin. Always nice to see her on screen.

Yes, it has a downer ending, but in narrative terms it completely works (by a a first-time screenwriter, apparently). Moreover the film really impressed by what it didn't do. Leading up to the climax I began to worry that the movie was going to attempt to re-create the strike on the tower by digitally showing us a 767 flying into WTC 1.

The last thing we need is Hollywood to contribute to our collective false memories about what happened that day. Instead the film completely eschewed any special effects that would add to our collectively video vocabulary of that morning. When I realized this, I heaved a big sigh of relief in my seat. This gave me permission to like the movie, which I did.

On the other hand, there was ample implied horror, in that Pattinson's character is seen mounting to the very upper floors of WTC 1 right before the attack. Those people in the top ten floors were the ones who were doomed right from the very first moment, if they weren't killed outright.

(end spoilers here)

Don't expect much more than a young adult drama if you see it. The main narrative is driven primarily by father-son conflict, a theme that arguably is one of the strengths of Postmodern film.

Curiously it's also another entry in the recent string of Brooklyn films (three in one month), in that it is framed by a backstory involving an incident in Brooklyn that happens to the heroine in her childhood. In a way it thus contributes to the subgenre of films that speak to the Brooklyn-Manhattan divide, although in a way that seems far away from the viewpoint of Saturday Night Fever (1978).

This will probably remain a guilty pleasure for 2010. On the other hand, I feel no guilt about my new Black Diamond trekker poles, ones that purchased on the spot after returning my rentals. Some things are mandatory.