Remember Me

Yeah yeah, I'm the worst blogger ever. I just haven't seen any movies in awhile. You'll live. And yeah, yeah. I saw a Robert Pattinson movie. Don't judge me. Oh, and spoilers abound so watch yourself. When I saw the previews for this movie a couple months ago, I thought it looked good. And I wasn't that worried about seeing a movie with a Twilight actor in it. Then I tried to watch New Moon yesterday. Which was bad. The acting in that one was so rough that I couldn't make it through. So I was a little wary of the potential bad acting. But this movie was really good. I really, really enjoyed it. Girls kept telling me this movie was "Like amazing!" And that's usually code for, "I'm not going to like this." But I did. I really did. Robert Pattinson was very good. And Emile de Ravin, Claire from Lost, is also good. Despite her pretty bad American accent. The rest of the cast also plays their parts very well. Chris Cooper, October Sky, Breach, The Patriot, and a slew of other movies I really like, plays Claire's dad, a Sgt. in the NYPD. And Pierce Brosnan, James Bond, Mamma Mia, Mrs. Doubtfire, plays Pattinson's dad. An uptight lawyer with mixed up priorities. He does this great kinda "used to be poor Brooklyn guy trying to be uppercrust" accent.

Pattinson plays Pattinson. Brooding and angsty, he seems really comfortable as this character and may face typecasting for much of his career. He has no direction in life. He doesn't work, he doesn't go to school, but he does "audit" classes. Which means he attends and learns without being graded or paying for the classes. It's kind of the Good Will Hunting approach but he just goes into the classes instead of just reading in the library. He and his roommate, Aiden, played by Tate Ellington who plays a very traditional comic relief role with brilliance, get into a fight and are arrested by Chris Cooper after Pattinson mouths off to him. Aiden, as a dare, convinces Pattinson to ask Claire out on a date to get back at Cooper for being a dick. Words of wisdom, don't date girls as a dare. It never works out properly. They fall in love, as they often do in movies. Claire's dad finds out about their relationship and Pattinson finally confesses to Claire that their relationship started on a dare. She get's upset and storms out. I don't know how I feel about that response. I mean, I understand that he wasn't really honest with her, but whatever. Their relationship is really now. Why does it matter why he approached her in the first place? Whatever. Girls are tricky.

One of the more interesting story lines involves Pattinson's family. His brother committed suicide on his 22nd birthday and it tore his family apart. He has a little sister, Caroline, played very well by Ruby Jerins, a very cute little girl with a lot of potential as an actress, who thinks that Pattinson hung the moon. Her artistic talent makes her something of an outcast among the "pretty" girls in her class. Pattinson tries his best to support her, but there's only so much he can do. Their father, divorced from their mother, is simply a check to them. He values his work over everything else and Pattinson really resents him for it. The conflict really comes to a head when Brosnan misses Caroline's art show. Pattinson storms into his office and really lays into him. They almost come to blows before they're stopped by others in the room.

The movie's set in 2001, in New York. You know this from the very beginning. And I thought right away, 9/11 is going to be related somehow. I didn't know how though. After Caroline is bullied to the point of breakdown by the "pretty" girls, Brosnan starts to come around. Pattinson flips out one morning after walking Caroline to school and destroys some school property and is arrested for the second time this movie. After bailing him out of jail, Brosnan gets a fire under him and begins to stand up for his family. Pattinson agrees to meet Brosnan at his office to go over some information about his lawsuit.

Then the movie gets interesting. Pattinson and Claire had just started to rekindle their relationship, and his family situation was finally turning out well. Pattinson is early to his dad's office and as he stands at the window of the office, the camera pans out and reveals that he is in Tower One of the World Trade Center. And everyone in the theater thinks a collective, "Shit! No! C'mon! Really?" The screen goes black and cuts to scenes of the other characters, ash starting to fall around them, just cry and look up into the sky. It's powerful. Like really moving.

I guess I knew that this might be a 9/11 movie. But I didn't really know.

I don't know if it's too soon for a 9/11 movie. I don't think so. It's been almost 10 years. Which is crazy to think of. It's crazy to remember where you were. 6th grade, outside of Mrs. Ault's science class. I remember not knowing exactly what the World Trade Center was. I remember thinking some drunk guy got into his twin engine Piper Cub and ran into an apartment high rise. I wasn't prepared. No one was. This movie took an interesting angle though. It got us invested in the characters, and then shocked us with the tragedy. Which is exactly what happened to all of us. There were regular people in those towers. With regular lives. It was really personal. And just like September 9 years ago, we were initially all too shocked to be upset. And that's how it was with this movie. I was too shocked to be sad. This one's good. As long as you can get past "Robert is Boverred" and Claire's accent, you'll really enjoy it.