'Remember Me' review

Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin (Credit: Myles Aronowitz/Summit)

Disaffected twentysomething Tyler (Robert Pattinson) is still coping with the aftershocks of his older brother’s suicide several years earlier. His parents (Pierce Brosnan and Lena Olin) are separated and his younger sister (Ruby Jerins) is an outcast at school. Tyler spends his days bumming around New York University with obnoxious roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington, in a truly cringe inducing performance), who dares him to pick up Ally (Emilie de Ravin), a classmate and the daughter of a cop (Chris Cooper). Ally has a family tragedy of her own that has left her wounded and withdrawn, so of course she and Tyler fall into a passionate romance that changes them both.

The buzz: It’s all about Pattinson in his first major role since becoming an overnight sensation in “Twilight.” A few smaller films he made pre-“Twilight,” including “How to Be” and “Little Ashes,” have tried to capitalize on the sudden fame, but this is the first to arrive with a genuine marketing campaign and expectations of success. It’s also a passion project for the actor, who signed on before “Twilight” blew up and has an executive producing credit. Plus, there’s already been talk about the movie’s unexpected ending, with some early articles and reviews spoiling the final scenes in the film.

The verdict: “Remember Me” certainly allows Pattinson to be a livelier, looser presence on screen than he is as Edward Cullen, but the broody star still doesn’t show much range. The role of Tyler plays into most of Pattinson’s unfortunate tendencies—overselling angst, emoting with an intensity that veers toward comical—and he doesn’t get much help from de Ravin, whose competent but unexceptional performance ensures this is a romantic pairing with muted impact. Director Allen Coulter (“Hollywoodland,” “The Sopranos”) seems to believe he’s found a contemporary “Ordinary People,” with romance in place of psychiatry, and admirably strives for emotional authenticity in every relationship. That works beautifully with a reliable pro like Cooper on hand—slightly less so with the more uneven Brosnan—but good actors can only carry Coulter so far, and his movie ultimately lacks the craft to really examine powerful themes of loss and love (explicitly stated in lines like “Our fingerprints don’t fade from the lives we touch” and a professor asking his class “Does knowledge of the past limit us or benefit us?”). Then there’s that ending, presented as a twist for maximum emotional impact on the audience, not the characters. It’s a crass manipulation, well beyond the dramatic scope of a little film that strives for sensitivity, before revealing itself as a cheap construction built on a shaky foundation.

Did you know? Coulter says he’d have to have an arm wrestling contest between Brosnan and Cooper to decide who’s the nicer guy to work with. The only problem there? The nicer guy might let his opponent win.

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