Remember Me (2010) - living in the moments

directer by Allen Coulter / starring Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan

Remember Me is about two lovers, Tyler and Ally, their relationship to each other and their dysfunctional families. Both of their families are short of overshadowed by death: Tyler's brother killed himself and Ally's mother was shot in front of her when she was a little girl. These old wounds and sorrows control their lives as they try to stay close to each other.

The film was a lot grimmer and heavier than I expected.  It had lighter, funny, sweet moments too, but overall its tone was very dark. Like, you just knew there's no way it'd end well. But you wanted it to. The characters felt real and I grew quite fond of them.

Turns out Robert Pattinson can act, after all. Who knew. Luckily, there were no Edward Cullen mannerisms, except for only one brooding facial expression that thank god disappeared within the same second it appeared. (Also, R-Patz is much more good-looking as a non-sparkling human.) Two thoughts about Emilie de Ravin: 1) she's really too old to play a 21-year-old love interest of Pattinson, but actually they'd made her look quite young, somehow, and 2) I kind of missed her Australian accent - not once did she say "My beibeh!".

My favourite aspect of the film ended up being the relationship of Tyler and her 11-year-old sister, Caroline. She is really mature and witty without being one bit annoying, and yet it's clear she's still a little girl, who's hurt from being bullied at school and ignored by her father. Tyler is the most awesome big brother one could imagine - supportive, caring, protective, understanding. They share some great scenes, and I happily would've watched even more of those.

The ending is no doubt the most discussed aspect of the film (next to Pattinson, maybe). It sure took me by surprise. One could argue it's a bit far-fetched, but I think it's only very powerful and a fine ending for a film like this. It really made me gasp and shed a few tears, too. And I can only imagine how hard it must have hit certain people. I think it completed very effectively the story that from the beginning was pretty much all about loss and love and life after death.

"If you could hear me, I would say that our finger prints don't fade from the lives we've touched."