REMEMBER ME

US, 2010, 113 minutes, Colour.
Robert Pattinson, Emily De Ravin, Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Lena Olin, Gregory Jbara, Ruby Jerins, Tate Ellington, Kate Burton, Martha Plimpton.
Directed by Allen Coulter.

One of the reasons for making Remember Me is to provide a star opportunity to display Robert Pattinson on screen after his extraordinary success in the Twilight films. He had been in the Harry Potter films and appeared as Salvador Dali in Little Ashes. But, as Edward the gentle and chaste vampire, he had the sixteen and unders around the world swooning – and buying tickets (with two more Twilight books to be filmed).

He is better in this one than in the Twilight films.

This is a sad story which begins with a startling murder in the New York subway and ends with September 11th, 2001. 9/11 is certainly seared into the American consciousness and its remembrance is very emotional.

Robert Pattinson plays Tyler, aged 21, the disaffected son of a broken family, still grieving the suicide of his elder brothers to whom he constantly writes in his journal, a therapy for his sadness as well as an opportunity to try to understand all that happens to him. He is at college and shares shambles-looking digs with his loud-mouthed friend, Aidan (Tate Harrington). He loves his mother (Lena Olin) who has happily re-married and his 11 year old sister, Caroline, a lively young girl, bullied at school, but a talented budding artist (Ruby Jerins).

The principal difficulty is Tyler's father whom we first see sitting aloof with and from the rest of the family after a visit to the dead brother's grave. Charles Hawkins is the consummately business-oriented and obsessed wheeler dealer on Wall St who has no ability to demonstrate any deeper feelings who clashes with his son and seems to ignore his daughter. This is one of Pierce Brosnan's most telling performances.

In the prologue to the film, we have seen a young girl and her policeman father (Chris Cooper). She (Emilie de Ravin) has grown up and attends the same college, and some of the same courses as Tyler. In the meantime, Tyler and Aidan have got into trouble intervening to help in a street brawl and are arrested by the same policemen who hits Tyler brutally.

Here are the ingredients for a romantic story, a potentially tragic story, a story with tangled relationships of love, of family ties and tensions, of confrontations. And a sad 9/11 ending.

1. A theme of deaths, memories, consequences?

2. New York City, 1991, 2001? The city as a character? The many facets, the boroughs? The subway? Police precincts? The world of wealth? Ordinary homes? Universities, apartments? Offices? The finale and the Twin Towers?

3. The introduction and its tone, the mother and daughter at the subway, the hassle, the shooting, the mother dying, the daughter seeing it? The father and his role as the policeman, the investigator?

4. Tyler and Robert Pattinson, his brooding look, presence? His studies, coming to his twenty-second birthday, the memory of his idealised brother shooting himself on his birthday? Admiration and dread? His life, idle, study? The contrast with Aiden as roommate, his zest? The classes? Seeing Ally and noticing her?

5. His family, his mother and father divorced, his mother remarrying, the role of the stepfather in the family? Caroline and her strong character? The anniversary, the visit to the cemetery, the aftermath, the drink, the father and his reaction, impersonal? The family together, leaving? The father and his visits, absences?

6. The mother, her social work, care? Caroline and her art, being bullied at school, her plans for the exhibition?

7. Tyler and Aiden out, drinking, observing the fight in the street, the brawl, Tyler going to the defence of the man attacked, the police arriving, arrest, his time in prison? His father bailing him out? The encounter with Neil Craig? Aiden’s dare to date his daughter?

8. Ally, the meeting, going out with Tyler, attraction, the bonds, visits? Her story of the murder? Her father and his love for her, possessive, at home, wanting strict observance, permissions, her decision to move out, move in with Tyler, asserting her life?

9. The party for Tyler’s birthday, the dinner with his father, Ally going, the elite restaurant? The father and his approval of Ally?

10. Neil Craig, his harshness, his meeting with Tyler, Tyler and his having to confess the truth to Ally? Her dismay?

11. Caroline, her art, her father not at the exhibition, cutting her hair, everybody helping her after the attack, the reconciliation?

12. Tyler and his appointment with his father, going to the office, 9/11 and the tragedy?

13. The aftermath of grief, reconciliation, people going on with their lives?