Showing posts with label Spoiler-Alert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spoiler-Alert. Show all posts

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Rob talks about Remember Me, Bel Ami and Sex Scenes With TimeOut

Spoilers about the end of the movie!


The teen heartthrob proves there’s more to life than ‘Twilight’ as he talks to Time Out about his ‘serious’ indie romance, ‘Remember Me’

The hum of nervous excitement buzzing around Robert Pattinson’s hotel suite this morning is such that you half expect him to walk out with golden skin and alarmingly sharp teeth. But in the flesh, the ‘Twilight’ star is warm, earnest and posher than you might imagine, with something of the teenage schoolboy to him, even down to the frayed cuffs on his jacket. In our closely monitored chat (20 minutes! No questions about Kristin!) Pattinson talks about his role as chain-smoking student loser Tyler Hawkins in the US indie movie ‘Remember Me’, about creating ‘mystique’ as an actor and about sucking blood off his co-star’s lip.

You looked scared stiff when you were handing out a Bafta award last month. Are you getting shyer?
‘I think I am, yeah! The more interviews you do, the more stuff you say to people. You suddenly get worried that people are more likely to judge you. If no one knows anything about you, then you can say whatever you want - and just contradict yourself later. But the more contradictions you make, the scope gets narrower as to what you can say before people get pissed off.’

Where does ‘Remember Me’ fit into the ‘Twilight’ craziness?
‘I’d read tons of scripts after the first “Twilight” movie and this was one of maybe two that I liked. I didn’t work for the whole year after “Twilight”. What did I do? Nothing! [Laughs] It was really nice. I was still so used to hanging around most of the time when I was in England. And now that I’ve been working a lot, I can’t imagine going a month without fretting. So now, I’m doing job-to-job-to-job. Which is a dangerous thing to do because you have a film coming out every three months. It’s over-saturation. You have to work a bit on creating some kind of mystique.’

Mystique? Is that what you feel you need? Or what you feel people want?
‘I see people who are in newspapers and magazines all the time. If they’re in every single week, I’m far less interested in their movies. So, yeah, I am always a little bit wary.’
Your new film ‘Remember Me’ is set in the summer of 2001. Did you have any reservations about fictionalising 9/11?
‘When I first read it, I didn’t think it was contentious. I thought it flowed organically; it’s anchored in reality. It hit hard for me so I wanted to portray the same emotions that I felt the first time I read it. I’m terrified of people thinking it’s manipulative. I read the script and I felt this should be made.’

You get beaten up a lot in ‘Remember Me’. Was it fun to act like a real person for a change?
‘Yeah, it’s always enjoyable smashing things up. I guess that’s one of the funniest things about it - from the first fight, which is such a severe beating, there are all these wounds on his face, for two thirds of the movie [laughs].’

And then your screen girlfriend [Emilie de Ravin] kisses you and she’s got a split lip…
‘There was a big moment, which is in the script, where there’s a kind of kinkiness with the cut in her lip but that got cut from the movie – where I’m sucking a little bit of blood off it [laughs]. I think it was a little bit too weird.’

Is this your first sex scene?
‘No. My first sex scene was in “Little Ashes” when I was about 21, and it was with a guy. And I’m supposed to have a kind of nervous breakdown in the middle of it as well. So that was a nice introduction to it!’

Do you feel like you have something to prove, ‘Twilight’ having been so bankable?
‘I think people are really harsh about anything that becomes successful. It’s really weird. I was looking at this article about “Little Ashes”. “He still hasn’t proved his box office potential. ‘Little Ashes’ bombed.” Could it have been the gay theme? Or, er, the fact that it was only released in 16 cinemas?’

There’s a lot of fags, booze and sex in this movie. What about your younger fans?
‘That’s the least of my concerns. I think it’s so ridiculous, people putting pressure on the arts. I think parents should be the ones who teach kids. The more you try to hide things like that, the more exciting and appealing they are. [Grins] The abstinence movement is only a reaction to everybody being so obsessed with sex for the past 20 years and it being so open to everyone. It’s crazy to think that young people, when their hormones are most raging, that they’re suddenly like, “Oh, I don’t want any of that.”’

You’re currently filming ‘Bel Ami’ with Uma Thurman. You play a real swine.
‘I thought it was one of the funniest scripts I’d ever read. When they made the movie in the ’50s with Angela Lansbury, they had to change the story. The novel is about this guy who screws everybody over and seduces all these women and completely gets away with everything. And in the first film, they had to have him shot because they thought that audiences wouldn’t be able to accept it. In this one it’s the total opposite. This guy is a complete arsehole, so arrogant and stubborn and self-righteous about everything. He remains an arsehole to the end and everyone congratulates him for it.’

‘Remember Me’ opens on Apr 2.

TimeOut via BelAmiFilm

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Remember Me: Why The Critics Are Wrong On This Movie



I can appreciate that Remember Me is accused of having “tired story lines” or happening in “bored to death land”, a bad performance from Robert Pattinson, and having a “disrespectful end”. What I can say is: this movie doesn’t follow rules and this is not necessarily wrong. It is like when you learn how to write an essay, somebody tells you that a well-written paper “must” follow an acceptable format. Remember Me is an excellent movie and I understand why critics are bashing it, it is because don’t follow the acceptable rules. I think that this point of view is wrong used in the case of Remember Me. Like I said in my previous review, we experienced a suicide in our family, and I can tell that when you have to go thru this kind of tragic experiences (like mine or murder) the most probable is that nothing that you have to live follow the “rules”. Your world is completely shaken by angst, regret, guilt, and you never know how are you going to react everyday. This movie is a real portray of what a loss like this represents. Please, don’t be worry about see it because our pain is not contagious. This is not the swine flu. This is just a real and fair portray, that is unchained by the fact that the main character, Tyler, left someone in to his world. Another thing that is hard to read is that critics said that Remember Me is “predictable”. Right now, I live in San Diego, CA area. Recently the police found the corps of two high school girls raped and murdered, and I don’t think that any person can tell to their two unfortunate families how “predictable” their suffering will be, or when this must end. I am sorry; I don’t mean to be rude. I am just making my point, is very frustrating to read that someone in this kind of tragedy can be qualified as “unhappy people”, “depressed”, “bored” or “still sad after 8 years”. Sadly, I must clarify that to live a experience like this is not a choice that people make, it just happen.

Second thing. This is something that critics will not like: I must say that Robert Pattinson is a great actor if he didn’t live this kind of experience, because he understood and explained to audience our feelings. I think I heard a girl expressing about him, she told: “he sees and he listens”. I must add, “he feels” and the most important thing “he transmits”. I pay more attention and my opinion is that Robert Pattinson in his performance as an actor has a very powerful innate instinct to transmit feelings to others. Hollywood and critics can be pissed off because this not comes from an acting technique. Is an innate personal skill that combined with his determination gives an instant connection with the public. In Remember Me he gives a great acting performance.

(Spoiler Alert: stop reading) Finally the end is not disrespectful, because the real end is in a few seconds’ scenes: she overcome, they overcome. This is the only “happy ending” that we, the people involved in tragedy, can aspire to. We will never forget, we will always remember, and somewhere, someday and somehow we will learn to diminish the pain for the loss, and start to handle it, in order to move on. We will always remember and overcome the bad and toxic feelings. I understand the mixed reactions because it is related with a national tragedy, but it’s done in a respectful way. Every person has inside his or her own grief rhythm, and if the end would be different, audience would not connect whit the possible overcome; which is the main message of the movie, and I can see that general people understood this better than critics.

Remember Me is a great movie, a piece of art. You must see it to have your own opinion. You can say that I am bias, but I think that so far is the better drama movie with a meaning in many years.
This review is a submission from one of our readers and we thank her for it. CMR

Source via Thinking of Rob

Exclusive Eclipse scene from the Wal-mart DVD...

SPOILER WARNING OBVSLY

from [info]anangelofastar @ [info]lion_lamb


outnow reviews Remember Me

Outnow.ch is the swiss movie database and today they finally added the review for Remember Me.

I tried to translate the article for you. Forgive the spelling and grammar mistakes.
Thanks to [info]technomat for the help with the first two paragraphs!

Only slightly spoilerish

------

Remember Me (2010)
Or: A thousand last cigarettes (*joke from the author)

Rated 4.7 out of 6 stars.

It is almost a shame that Robert Pattinson plays the main character in this film. Not because the young Brit doesn't do a decent job, quite the contrary. But his name on the movie poster will probably divide the movie audience in two groups.
Twilight-fans will run to the theaters, the others will make a face and won't give it the time of the day. If heartthrob Robert Pattinson plays in it, one has to expect a soapy romance, tragic twists and teenagers bein lovesick, right?

In this case both groups would be wrong. As simple as the story seems - boy meets girl, they fall in love, there's trouble - the story is handled surprisingly well. Lots of humor, a nice but not too sweet romance and likeable characters should win over even the more cynical viewers.
The chemistry betweent the two leading actors is undeniable. Emilie de Ravin gives a great performance as sexy, unconventional Allie. And Pattinson is able to prove that as an actor he can play more than just the pale emo-vampire. He delivers especially great performances as the big brother alongside the convincing reserved Ruby Jerins and in verbal disputes with the superb amoral Aidan, played by charming and comical Tate Ellington.


When in scene with Pierce Brosnan, Pattinson's performance weakens slightly. This is partly because of the script, that describes him as a rebellious man with no goals in life and he can't always deliver that. During the convincing parts of the movie, one is reminded of The Catcher in the Rye; during the weaker parts the movie sometimes stumbles. For example the reason why the couple gets to know each other seems forced; here you notice that they had to come up with an 'artistic motor' to get the story rolling. There are also a few quite pathetic moments in which one might experience 'second-hand embarrassment'. But the figures are always likeable and understandable, even during the weaker moments.

And then the end. Yes, Remember Me is one of those movies, in which the end turns everything upside down. At the end there's this big moment and it changes the view on everything that happend during the movie. But you realise that during the whole movie there were hints but you just couldn't place them. Those who expect a simple soapy love story with lots of romance will probably be disappointed. Too bad! Instead of romance kitsch, the end comes with a finale twist that at the same time delivers a contemporary message, which one wouldn't expect from such a small movie.

Forget Twilight, forget the Hype about the main actors. The movie doesn't deserve to be downed as a 'Pattinson-vehicle'. It's a story of two young people and their families; told with lots of humor, charm and sensitiveness. Apart from a few weak moments the movie convinces with likable characters, with whom you can identify yourself and with the end that is pretty heavy and will probably start a lot of heated discussions.


source

Friday, March 19, 2010

Great Cinematical Article/Discussion: Post-Movie Coffee: Remember Me



The idea for this series has been swimming around in my head for a while, but it never insisted on hitting the written page until now. Last week, Robert Pattinson's Remember Me hit the screen. Before its release, public concern focused on how Pattinson would deal with a mainstream starring role that didn't have him grimacing every time the tasty-smelling Bella Swan walked by. Once people saw the film and its controversial ending, however, the dialogue flipped. In what has to be one of the lowest scores for a decent movie, the film has suffered a 26% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with critiques flinging words like ridiculous, manipulative, overwrought, shamelessly exploitative, insignificant, trivializing, vile, cheap, and unforgivable.

And for the first time in a very long time, I completely disagree with popular critical opinion.

(Seeing that this is a discussion of the film and its ending, here is your obvious SPOILER WARNING.)

Remember Me focuses on the hot-headed but well-meaning life of Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson), and his romance with the good girl Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin). The story is nothing new. Both have suffered terrible tragedy in their past -- Ally's mom was killed in front of her at a young age, while Tyler's brother killed himself -- and they play out the timeless tale of the misunderstood bad guy and that rare girl who recognizes his noble motivations. All the typical characterizations are there: bad-dad Charles Hawkins (Pierce Brosnan), the overprotective pop Sgt. Neil Craig (Chris Cooper), the slutty and immature best man-friend Aidan Hall (Tate Ellington), and the smarter-than-her-years younger sister Caroline Hawkins (Ruby Jerins).

While the characters are all too familiar, how their lives play out is not. Usually a drama uses character twists that you may or may not buy into -- the bad guy goes good, the good guy goes bad. In Remember Me, it's all grey, where even the most stereotypical aspects are given real rationale. Young Caroline is an art prodigy, but this rare talent isn't just a cinematic device bubbling up out of nowhere -- you can see how she's developed her talent as a desperate way to earn her father's attention and approval. That dad Charles, meanwhile, fills out every truly despicable bad father moment, but when faced with severe trauma, when his familial awkwardness is replaced by the instinctual drive to protect his family, he becomes real. The realism in these characterizations makes them familiar not because we've seen them so many times before, but because they become like people we've encountered through our lives, rather than just people on a screen.

That's compounded by a strict decision not to wallow in pain. Save the shocking death of Ally's mother in the beginning of the film, Allen Coulter chooses to back off the ten-tissue drama where we see people sob and fall apart. The knife is not stuck in and twisted. There is always emotion, but he knows you don't have to show it to make an impact. When Caroline walks into that party of jerky little girls, your gut knows what will happen, but instead of lingering, we only see the aftermath. And of course, when Tyler bikes to his dad's office, finally finding the humanity in the man he's hated, we don't see why this moment is both beautiful and devastating first-hand.

The ending... With hints that you either recognize from the get-go, or smack your head in exasperation afterward, Tyler is waiting for Charles in his World Trade Center office. Caroline's teacher has written the date on the board -- September 11, 2001. You don't need to see the explosion; you know what happens. The camera pans out from the towers, and then we're shown a brief montage of each character dealing with the tragedy. Neil tries to help with the disaster; Caroline walks out of the school and realizes her brother or dad will never again be there to get her or drop her off; Charles realizes that he is losing another son, just as he got him back. The shots linger long enough to pay tribute without hungrily eating up each character's pain. And when it ends with Ally taking that subway ride she never got to take a decade before, it's the right time.

I can understand why many viewers are angered. September 11 is the gut-wrenching tragedy people of today live with. The film taps into our collective experience, which recalls our own pain while making these people real. The story gains a semblance of reality much more worthy than if the obviously doomed Tyler got killed in an accident, shot, or any other typical deadly device. The film is about 9/11 in that many normal, regular people were lost in those towers, who had lives much like our own. They weren't heroes or demons, just people who died much too soon. Situated as it is, we're reminded of our own loved ones and people we lost, how each person in that tower had a story, and simply that at any time, this can all be taken away -- whether by an act that affects one, or an act that affects the world.

To frame this as a 9/11 story in marketing or presentation would make this film's meaning cease to exist. Every action and reaction would be a means to an ever-looming end, rather than a real life simply snuffed out without warning by a terrible tragedy. That day is so big, so heavy, that no real story -- where heroism is no more than humanity -- could hold up to the pressure. And as we sit here almost ten years later, it's nice to stop thinking about the spectacle and what came after, and to imagine the stories that were lost.

Obviously, I'm in the minority, so I'd love to hear what you think below. Did you like it? If you didn't, how would you have changed the film, or how could the same story be made in a way that you appreciate?

Cinematical

Only positive reviews and a new interview

The german TV magazines are out today and all reviews are positive.
I only buy the large ones but all I saw say the same:
Remember Me is a good movie and Rob improves as an actor. :-)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Review of RM London Premier from Film4

Great article but I may be biased about the premier. I've read so much nice things about Rob at the London premier from fans. Check out Spunk-Ransom.com, so much of stuff about it. Rob's so sweet!

Film4's resident Twi-hard Rachel George went along to absorb the madness of R-Pattz mania at the Leicester Square premiere of his new film, Remember Me. Warning: contains serious squee.


Last night I developed profound industrial deafness from all the screaming. It was totally worth it. Every 16 year olds' (and a few Twilight Moms') obsession, Robert Pattinson, graced the red carpet in Leicester Square for the premiere of his new movie Remember Me.
Looking every bit as biteable as he does playing vegetarian vampire Edward Cullen (if slightly more pink-skinned) in a suit jacket and light blue shirt, Rob proved he's not only a decent actor but a lovely, charming man, whose self deprecating, thoughtful, unaffected interview persona is utterly real. The levels of adoration Robert Pattinson inspires seems to make words like 'heartthrob' redundant. Fans slept overnight in Leicester Square to see their obsession, the boy from Barnes with the semi-fro, and their patience was rewarded. R-Pattz spent at least an hour and a half speaking to fans, signing books, posters, notepads and hopefully not expertly folded marriage contracts.
He posed for photos, joked and hugged the squealing girls (and a few boys) who'd waited for hours for him, going back to fans even when his people were trying to pull him away to speak to the waiting throngs of press and cameras.
One Twi-hard, Mel Webber, 25, said "When Rob came back over to the lines, after speaking to the press, he checked with fans where he'd gotten up to so he didn't miss anyone out. He signed my copy of Twilight with a legible 'R'. I'm still shaking!''
He ended up delaying the start of the Remember Me screening, and the subsequent press conference, utterly cementing your humble reporter's obsession with the vampire-acting, piano-playing shampoo-shunner. When Rob finally introduced the film, a tale of love and grief set in New York City, after almost two hours on the red carpet, he promised he'd reimburse us all for having to buy our own popcorn. Sigh. Only 16 weeks to go until Eclipse...


Via Spunk-Ransom.com
 
Source

Monday, March 15, 2010

Controversial 'Remember Me' Ending Dividing Critics and Audiences - MAJOR SPOiLERS!



While it might have initially seemed like Robert Pattinson's latest movie, 'Remember Me,' would be generating controversy and debate over whether it proves that the 'Twilight' star has real acting chops, it has actually caused a big stir among critics and audiences because of its incredibly dramatic (and some feel overwrought) final minutes.

Its big twist seems to be overshadowing the rest of the picture for some and is undoubtedly drawing attention away from the fact that, despite its low 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film features solid performances from Pattinson and co-star Emilie de Ravin ('Lost').

(SPOILER ALERT! If you have not seen the film and do not want to know the ending, read no further as the climax is revealed and discussed in detail below.)


In the film, Pattinson plays Tyler, a troubled NYU student who lives in a grungy Manhattan apartment despite coming from an affluent home. He is coping with the loss of his older brother, who committed suicide, and when he meets a fellow student named Ally (de Ravin), who saw her mother gunned down by a mugger when she was 5, he finds an equally damaged soulmate. The two both have family issues to contend with -- her overprotective cop father (Chris Cooper), his emotionally estranged lawyer father (Pierce Brosnan) -- as well as the fact Tyler dated Ally initially on a mean-spirited dare from an obnoxious friend (which blows up in his face when he actually falls for her).

By the climax of the film, a lot of family bonding has ensued, and the two lovers have started to heal the rift between them. Then, when Tyler is waiting for his father in his law office (on their own way to making amends), we see him looking out of the window, hopefully. The camera cranes back, and we see that Tyler's standing in one of The World Trade Center's Twin Towers. It's then spelled out -- literally, on a chalkboard in his little sister's classroom -- that the date is Sept. 11, 2001, and it's obvious what's going to happen next. When the devastation comes, it is implied rather than graphically depicted. Still, the event packs 'Remember Me' with a big wallop that has infuriated some viewers and moved others.

Critics have vastly different opinions about the film's jarring denouement:

Rolling Stone's Peter Travers declared in his capsule review: "It's all weepy drool until the twist ending, which is shockingly offensive."

Lisa Kennedy of the Denver Post assessed: "The finale manages to be tasteful and exploitative at the same time. It touts forgiveness while being mildly infuriating. Such is the danger of borrowing from the enormous to merely entertain. If that. Forgettable should be the last thing a movie touching on the events of 9/11 should be. Yet 'Remember Me' is just that."

Stephen Whitty of Newark's Star-Ledger, who liked the film, revealed in his review: "Movie fans should know that the story takes an abrupt third-act twist and tacks on the sort of arbitrary, 'significant' ending that's better left to first-year creative-writing assignments."

Rebecca Murray of About.com observed: "Even if you disapprove of just where the film goes, the story building up to the final climatic twist is moving and real."

Manohla Dargis of the New York Times, who liked Pattinson's performance, stated: "Along the way, many people die but few matter: most are just part of the warm-up act as well as the means to a shamelessly exploitative end."

Boo Allen of the Denton Record Chronicle charged: "'Remember Me' wallows deepest in shame by concluding its treacly treatise by drawing on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a final plea for emotion. Unforgivable."

Audiences seem a little more forgiving. In the 'Remember Me' user reviews page on Moviefone, MissPink1189 writes, "This movie has definitely changed my life ... Some say too soon for an ending like that, but it just makes the story that much better." Jenniebruan22 wrote that she lives in New York, "and I didn't find the end distasteful at all. In fact it made me see the movie in a much more profound way." Says ARod73: "The surprise ending leaves a lasting [message] of living life with a purpose , embracing the small moments of happiness and not waiting to tell someone how you feel, tell them now." Still, Dmachone thinks, "The ending of this movie is unbelievably out of line."

It is understandable that some people found the ending shocking -- there are many New Yorkers and those beyond who lost someone in the 9/11 tragedy -- but when critics use words like "unforgivable" and "offensive," it not only condemns the filmmakers of outright exploitation and tastelessness, but it seems to render the subject taboo in some manner. While for most people the ending will come as a shock, it does add some emotional impact to the story. Could a smaller tragedy have sufficed in place of the Twin Tower collapse? Probably, but somehow utilizing an event that all of us feel connected to adds further impact to the story, and it also contemplates the idea of how many other deeply interwoven stories ended on that fateful day, and what they were like.

One can argue that the inclusion of 9/11 is unnecessary and insensitive, and that such a major public trauma did not need to be part of the film's more intimate story. One could also argue that the film does not linger long on or exploit images of the devastation. We do not see the planes hit the towers, but we do see the smoldering buildings from a distance and watch most of the film's characters looking towards downtown Manhattan in horror, knowing that Tyler is trapped there. We see his diary landing amid the rubble. The events are not used to make a political statement, but a personal one, although they are rendered within an unexpected plot twist that has left many people feeling uneasy or angry.

The filmmakers undoubtedly knew their ending would be polarizing, and Summit Entertainment took a gamble with it. A safe bet would have been to film a less controversial finale. By the same token, 'Remember Me' focuses on the tragedy that befalls us when we live our lives full of conflict, anger and bitterness and fail to appreciate the happy and joyous moments when they come -- or to learn to forgive, make amends and move forward with our lives. And how many of us appreciated those sentiments more after the horrifying shock of 9/11?

'Remember Me' is not the first and will certainly not be the last film to incorporate 9/11 into a cinematic storyline. Like most major tragedies and wartime events, it will undoubtedly be filtered through a pop culture lens well into the future. It is 2010, and we are still making movies about the Holocaust and WWII (for example), and some of them have certainly been politically incorrect and generated debate. Perhaps 'Remember Me' director Allen Coulter and screenwriter Will Fetters were thinking about this when they created this story and brought it to the screen. Or perhaps not. (Coulter has said he was initially tentative about using the ending.)

At least they have us talking, not only about the film's message, but how we are still polarized by and dealing with the aftermath of a major catastrophic event. The emotional conflict that it has stirred is in keeping with the spirit of the film. Better that reaction than indifference.


Moviefone via RobPattzNews

FOX TV reviews Remember Me

Robert Pattinson And Cast Discuss Controversial 'Remember Me' Ending


Beware of major "Remember Me" spoilers below.

From Paul Greengrass' nerve-jangling "United 93" to Adam Sandler's maudlin drama "Reign Over Me," the events of September 11, 2001, have served as both the main event and the trauma-infused context for a string of Hollywood films. The latest cinematic exploration of 9/11 comes during Robert Pattinson's romantic drama "Remember Me."

At the end of what appears to be a commonplace love story between two young New Yorkers — played by Pattinson and "Lost" star Emilie de Ravin — the audience learns that the events of the film are actually set almost one decade in the past. Pattinson's character travels up to his father's office, which we suddenly realize is housed in the World Trade Center and that he's gone to meet his dad on the morning of September 11. He is killed as the planes collide with the towers.

It's a controversial ending, no doubt, one fraught with issues of emotional and historical memory, the exigencies of narrative storytelling and the potential exploitation of 21st-century America's defining trauma. These are all matters that weighed heavily on the minds of Pattinson and his co-stars, as well as director Allen Coulter. MTV News spoke with each of them to get their personal take on the ending of "Remember Me" and why each felt 9/11 was so integral to the story at large. Here is what they had to say.


Robert Pattinson: "When I first read the script, it seemed so much a part of it. As soon as I read it, I felt immediately connected to it. If it was edited down in any way, I don't think it would be the same thing. I always feel there's some kind of power to the script. I wanted to keep that in the movie."

Emilie de Ravin: "For me, it was handled so beautifully, but it was also just such a surprise to me the first time I read it. I think I've cried every time I read this script and seen this film — so I might have to walk out when we're watching it! But it's such an important part of history and I think everyone's going to have a completely different opinion because everyone has a different experience, whether they were involved or know somebody involved. Everyone remembers exactly where they were when they heard about it."

Pierce Brosnan: "Will Fetters, the writer — this young man really drew up a beautiful story about this significant, emotional time in all our history and all our life, one which the generations will reverberate from. That bright blue morning of 9/11 is indelibly etched in our hearts. So this young writer took a love story and painted the story up against the backdrop of 9/11. The movie is a simple movie, but it makes you appreciate the moment of life and time.

Chris Cooper: "I had some concern about the portion of this film that is a bit of a surprise and I hoped that it would be handled tastefully — as tastefully as it could be. I must say after I saw it, I don't know how you could handle it anymore tastefully but still get the idea across of the loss. I think the strongest thing in the film is the idea of loss. My character and my daughter [de Ravin], early in the film we've encountered heavy loss and we learn more about Robert Pattinson and what is going on with his family and what they have lost. I just think it's a theme throughout."

Director Allen Coulter: "The fact is that, from the very beginning, this is a story about what we call 'the bolt from the blue' — the unexpected event that alters the trajectory of your life. We start with a very personal story, and as the story unfolds that very notion is enlarged upon and goes from the personal to the universal. We felt we were trying to humanize that kind of event."

MTV

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Rob's thoughts about bicycling in NYC and what he was doing during the time the movie takes place

Some of these questions we've read it before, but there are a lot of new ones. SPOILERS!



In his new film, the romantic drama “Remember Me,” Robert Pattinson plays Tyler, a rebellious young man in New York City who has had a strained relationship with his father (Pierce Brosnan) ever since tragedy separated their family.

Tyler didn’t think anyone could possibly understand what he was going through until the day he met Ally (Emilie de Ravin) through an unusual twist of fate. Love was the last thing on his mind, but as her spirit unexpectedly heals and inspires him, he begins to fall for her. Through their love, he begins to find happiness and meaning in his life. But soon, hidden secrets are revealed, and the circumstances that brought them together slowly threaten to tear them apart.

“Remember Me” is an unforgettable story about the power of love, the strength of family, and the importance of living passionately and treasuring every day of one’s life. The film also stars Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (“Adaptation”) and Academy Award nominee Lena Olin (“Chocolat”).

Robert Pattinson talked about his role as executive producer on “Remember Me,” what it was like working with Pierce Brosnan, and his upcoming film “Bel Ami” which he is currently shooting in England. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: What was it like to be an executive producer on this?

RP: I’m glad Nick’s (Nick Osborne) not in the room anywhere. I mean, I can’t really claim to be a proper producer. I only really came on towards the end of the movie. I was always completely on the same page with Allen (Coulter) and Nick about how they wanted to make it, and then I just wanted to make sure, as much as I could help, to protect the process. I consulted and I talked to them and stuff but I don’t want to claim any kind of creative input.

Q: Is that something you’re looking to do to control your career down the line?

RP: Yes. I was never there. Allen and Nick were there right at the nexus along with Will (Fetters) and they really championed the whole script the whole time. But yeah, I’d love to do it. I’d love to be involved in the whole process. Inevitably things become out of your hands so that the more input you can have when you can have input, the better.

Q: Did you learn a lot on this by coming in later on?

RP: Definitely, yeah. Also, at the beginning, when we were doing the rewrites of the script, it’s so nice being able to talk to everyone involved. You just don’t get that. Never. So, it was really great.

Q: This is a story about love and loss. Have you ever felt confused or lost in what you want to do in life and your career? Have you ever lost anyone dear to you or a pet?

RP: [Laughs] Yeah, I mean, to an extent. It’s terrible. I keep talking about my dog all the time. It’s an incredible dog, which I said in this interview the other day, like the dog was the most important part of my life. My family went crazy with me for saying that. But, however ridiculous it may seem to some people, it was one of the defining moments of my life. It was the worst day of my life. I mean, the dog died. I’ve lost a lot of family members as well. Strangely, that’s one of the things. At the same time, I’m talking to people, you know, when they’re talking about acting, they’re like “Picture your dog dying if you want to cry.” I would never do that. It cheapens the memory so much. [Laughs] I don’t know if that really answers the question.

Q: Did you always know what you wanted to do?

RP: No, not really. I still don’t. You try to make every little thing, you try to add something to it. I don’t know. I try to do film projects, I try to choose things which I think I can give something more to or help to elevate it to something.

Q: Allen mentioned that you had to act when you’re surrounded by fans. How do you concentrate and focus on your performance?

RP: It is really just like blanking out. At the beginning, I was having loads of problems with it because it was really crazy when we were filming around Washington Square Park. It was just complete mayhem. There was this moment when one of the security guys saw me getting more and more angry with these paparazzi guys and he just said, “Okay, imagine going over and trying to hit someone and missing in front of 40 cameras,” and that was enough to break my whole thing. It didn’t really bother me afterwards. It’s weird. It’s strange. I did a film where I hardly knew anyone on the crew or anything, because I couldn’t get out of my trailer when we were shooting, especially for the first month. I mean, I didn’t know any of them. It was really odd. But, at the same time, it’s quite a good lesson in life – discipline -- because you literally have to do it. At the end of the day, you can’t just say “I’m not doing it until these people go away.” It was way more intense than any of the Twilight films. There’s never even that many people who turn up for that. It was definitely an experience.

Q: Do you think it impacts the performance though? Does it distract you enough to actually detract from your performance?

RP: It makes you a little more self conscious. Yeah, I think there are some bits. If you wanted to really, you know, you can’t experiment with things. In the rehearsal period, you’ve got these people videoing it and so you can’t do silly things to get yourself comfortable. So, it did in a way. I’m doing a thing now where there’s no one around and I feel a million times more comfortable, so it must have had some effect. But, at the same time, there are certain qualities about Tyler, like being a little bit clenched and hiding and suppressing a lot of his emotions, so maybe it helped.

Q: What are you doing now where no one’s around? Are you shooting in Siberia?


RP: [Laughs] It’s in England for one thing which is very different to the States. The hysteria around the Twilight stuff, I mean, it’s growing a little bit, but it’s completely different. But, it’s a period thing so we’re in all these stately homes in the middle of nowhere and people just can’t find the places. Half the crew can’t find the places.

Q: What is the title?

RP: It’s called “Bel Ami.”

Q: How is it playing an American and adopting an American accent and behaviors?

RP: It is really odd how that’s happened. But then again, in the last 5 years, in L.A. you see every single actor who’s going to auditions and stuff, everybody’s Australian or English or something, everyone. I mean, in the last 5 years, I used to be like that. I mean, a guy from England, and you could really use it to your advantage as well. You can’t use it anymore. It’s more of an advantage being an American. [Laughs] But yeah, it’s odd. I grew up watching tons of American films. That’s kind of why I wanted to be an actor from watching Americans. No one’s really influenced me as much, who’s English or from some part of Britain, as American actors [have]. In other words, I feel more comfortable speaking an American accent in films. I think it feels more of a film to me. I feel like I’m kind of pretending when I’m using my own accent.

Q: What was it like working with Pierce Brosnan? You had to keep that tension on the screen. Did that bleed over?

RP: Yeah, I mean, no, we weren’t…there was no tension at all. He’s like the nicest guy. He’s really nice. I had no idea what to expect from him at all. He’s incredibly hard working. There’s not a hint of pretense or anything about him. And also, if I wanted to go rehearse or I wanted to talk about something with Allen, he’d always be willing to come across. He’d cancel things to go and talk about it. Considering we didn’t have that many scenes together as well, he would always come and I’d want to talk about it all the time. So yeah, he was great in that respect.

Q: Did he give you any advice on how to handle being a celebrity?

RP: He did one thing the first night I went out to dinner with him, just before we started shooting. We were in this place. It was an old-fashioned type of French restaurant with all these banker-looking guys. They didn’t recognize me but they recognized him obviously. He’s probably their idol in a lot of ways. He noticed these people looking over and I’m sitting there and getting more and more self-conscious. I need to leave. You know, I didn’t even realize they weren’t looking at me. And he goes up to them and introduces himself to everybody in the restaurant. At first, I was saying “What are you doing? You’re completely insane.” But it worked so well and he talked to them for a minute, and people do not look around afterwards and you can tell they’re going to go home and say “That was such a nice guy.” And there’s nothing weird about it, being in the restaurant with him afterwards. You’re no longer a kind of freak. But he’s got phenomenal confidence and so he can do that type of stuff. If I went up, it would look like I was trying to start a fire or something. [Laughs] “Hey, how ya doin’, huh?” I mean, it would look really stupid.

Q: Do you ask advice from people who have been where you are now? Are there tricks for dealing with all of this?

RP: I think it’s all really simple. From what I’ve seen, you look at how people are judged in the public arena. I think the majority of people who get beaten by it are just the people who are seen all the time, and so the less you’re seen, then you’re alright. As long as you keep attempting to make quality films, then eventually your name stands for something other than just meaningless celebrity. It’s a kind of difficult battle. You’ve got to make the work mean more than your celebrity. I think people like Johnny Depp have done that. He’s not judged at all for his public image. It’s just his work that’s judged. It’s a really, really difficult thing. It’s a lot of discipline and a lot of hiding which you have to get used to.

Q: I liked the relationship between your character and his little sister. How did you develop such a nice chemistry?

RP: I don’t know. She was just really cool. I always liked the idea of having a younger sibling. My family tricked me about 5 years ago that my mom was pregnant and I didn’t realize it was April Fools’ Day. They spent the entire day saying I was going to have a little brother, which I told all my friends it was the best day of my entire life. [Laughs] I carried on for 3 days believing it. It’s weird because now, after working with Ruby (Jerins), I liked it a lot. Whenever I see a part now, like a younger brother or I’m looking at parts where I’ve got a kid, I just love the idea of it. I’m getting like broody. [Laughs] It’s weird. It’s so bizarre. She was great to work with. She’s an amazing actress and a really interesting girl. She was really fantastic.

Q: This took place around September 11th, 2001. Do you remember what you were doing then?

RP: Yeah, I was still at school. I was doing my mock exams and my teacher came in and said “You need to stop doing what you’re doing and everyone needs to go watch.” And the whole school was brought down to watch the television. They were saying your entire generation’s lives are going to be completely different from this point on. And I guess it has been as well and I think will be for maybe the generation after us as well. I mean, it ended up being a massive event in my life.

Q: Was bicycling in Manhattan a fun experience?

RP: Yeah. It was fun. That bike broke every single time I was riding it so I have no idea. It was sort of cheap and I hadn’t ridden a bike for like 5 years before that as well, so I couldn’t really remember how to do it. That was the other thing as well about shooting. That was the one scene where they didn’t have any crowds around. It’s funny. I realize there are ways to sneakily start filming when no one can be around and I wished we’d figured that out in the beginning, because we’d done all the permits and false names and all these things which I shouldn’t probably say. But yeah, it was fun doing it.

Q: What was your favorite scene in this film?

RP: I think the scene where I confront Caroline’s Billy. That was the most fun to do. I mean, a lot of the scenes with Caroline. I really liked working with her, mainly because you don’t have to do anything. You could just look at her. It’s one of the only times I haven’t been self-conscious at all when I’ve been filming. It’s just so easy to do things with her. Whatever she did, I could completely go off of that. She was always leading the scene, so yeah, probably the scenes with her.

Q: Are you looking forward to pursuing music more?

RP: Yeah, I want to do it at the end of the year. All my friends are recording albums now so I’m very annoyed about it. But I can’t do the two things at the same time. I don’t know how people do it. All these people like Jennifer Lopez and they do everything all at once. My mind is in a completely differently place. I don’t even listen to music when I’m working.

Q: Do you have a company or are you thinking of establishing a company because it seems like you can do whatever movie you want?

RP: I want to. Yeah. I want to start a thing which encompasses music and writing as well. But, it’s just time. I don’t think I’ve established myself enough in film and definitely not in music. I haven’t done anything in music. I think you need to have a lot of good will towards you to be able to get one really going. You look at George Clooney’s company. They make great movies which wouldn’t be made otherwise. And Leonardo DiCaprio’s company as well. He’s got great people working there. They all have really good taste and they’ve made a lot of people a lot of money. I think it takes time. I want everything all at once and it’s difficult to think like that, so I’m trying to slow down a little bit.

Q: Are you filming your new movie right now?

RP: Yeah, I’ve done two weeks and I go back on Thursday. That’s why I’m kind of spaced out. [Laughs]

Source

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Time Magazine and Other Media Outlets Review 'Remember Me'



From Time

Apparently, millions of Twilight-obsessed tweens and teens were right about one thing: Robert Pattinson does indeed have an indecent level of movie charm. In Remember Me, a sweetly sodden love story with a twist, he plays Tyler Hawkins, one of those sensitive good-bad boys that have been driving women insane since the invention of the sneer. Tyler is a lot livelier than Edward the brooding vampire; he is James Dean crossed with Holden Caulfield. Can you contain yourself?
(See photos of the latest Twilight characters.)
The movie follows a familiar formula: boy makes wager he can snag girl for nefarious purposes, then falls in love with her while the clock ticks down to the revelation of his lousy deed and his inevitable redemption. But rather than taking the traditional romantic comedy route, Remember Me is all about the melodrama. Instead of having the usual Manhattan magazine or fashion jobs, Tyler and his girl Ally (Lost's Emilie de Ravin) are college kids mired in misfortune. They are just 21 but have been through the wringer.

Read full review HERE


From Rope of Silicon

Anything can happen at any time. The quote "life is full of surprises" is a popular one because it's true, and it's not often in filmmaking a movie is able to capture the essence of that quote and give it true meaning. Remember Me manages to do just that, using well developed characters in a story that, admittedly, is rather generic. But the story is only a starting point as first-time screenwriter Will Fetters and director Allen Coulter (Hollywoodland) are much more interested in the idea of living your life to the fullest because you never know what's around the corner, which ultimately outshines the relatively simple and predominately cliched plot.

Robert Pattinson is best known as Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise, but here he shows there may be some talent locked inside, which has otherwise laid dormant while he cashed paychecks for playing a diamond-skinned vampire. Here he plays Tyler, a tortured New York twenty-something with no goals in life and no real direction. His brother Michael committed suicide six years ago at the age of 22 and Tyler is just a few months away from turning 22 himself and his connection to his lost brother is one that's never been broken.

Read full review HERE


From The Scorecard Review

Remember Me is beautiful and bittersweet and I can’t emphasize enough how much I detest bittersweet. It leaves me feeling poisoned for days and I still haven’t completely gotten this film out of my system. I do enjoy reviewing movies, but I very consciously stick to non-threatening comedies, creature features, and horror movies–in other words, pure pretend. I LIKE pretending, because the real world can be such a tragic, violent place. And the story behind Remember Me is so unbearable to me that to have it portrayed with such sad, beautiful class was actually painful.

Normally, Bayer goes to all the big releases and he should have had Remember Me. What makes it so much worse is that I went in all sarcastic and smug, ready to rail on yet another manipulative Hollywood Kabuki. That’s what I get for wandering away from my number one, personal movie law: If it could happen and it’s not about triumph, avoid it like Malaria.

Read full review HERE


From Denver Post

The problems with "Remember Me, starring Robert Pattinson — the vampire Edward Cullen of "Twilight" — aren't the heartthrob's fault.
Even if they were, it's hard to imagine the "Gossip Girl" or "Twilight" demographic this PG-13 romantic drama seems tailored for necessarily caring.
No, the missteps in this story of two lovers from different classes drawn together by grief are due to ambitions not quite met.

Read full review HERE


From Movieline

Any review of the maudlin, meandering Robert Pattinson drama Remember Me will always get around to mentioning the Big Twist Ending, so let’s just get it out of the way now: There’s a Big Twist Ending that anyone paying attention to the film’s internal clock and visual cues can see coming a mile away. I won’t spoil it, because one of the film’s few involving qualities lies in spotting these hints as director Allen Coulter and first-time screenwriter Will Fetters deliver them. Other than that, get ready for a marathon of angst, grief, romance and loving close-ups of gorgeous young people in the middle of it all.

Reafd full review HERE


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Friday, March 12, 2010

REELZ at the RM screenings

We're all going to see the movie anyway... A bunch of 'Remember Me' Reviews

Spoilers


From Film.com

As I look through the six pages of hurriedly scribbled notes I took while watching Remember Me, I'm struck by the overall ambition and courage of the film. Massive themes are considered here: love and loss, the role parents should play, sibling support, fledgling relationships in college, the role of blunt trauma in the building of character. True, that's a lot of emotional weight, and the key for enjoyment here is to buy into the overarching sincerity of the film. By taking a risk, and actually being about something, Remember Me becomes vulnerable to those who would lash out against perceived melodrama in movies. But we've got to take back the streets on this one; we need writers and directors out there taking chances, we've got to get away from the paint-by-numbers industry that has become modern cinema.

Read full review HERE



From USA Today

Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson seems to have found a better vehicle for his angst-ridden style of acting. Those who relish him as a lovesick bloodsucker will surely take issue, but until Remember Me, his best acting job was as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Pattinson was woefully miscast as Salvador Dali in last year's Little Ashes, but playing a contemporary, brooding and lost young man in Remember Me shows that he has more range than is visible in his one-dimensional role as a sexy vampire.

Read full review HERE



From Newsweek

The new Robert Pattinson movie has an unexpected plot twist. Is it exploitative, or historically important?

From the ads on TV, Remember Me looks like your everyday college dramedy. (Spoiler alert: Surprise plot points discussed ahead!) It stars Robert Pattinson making goo-goo eyes at his college girlfriend (Emilie de Ravin). The film’s poster shows the sweethearts clutched in a passionate embrace with the cryptic tagline: “Live in the moments.”

Read full review HERE


From The Boston Herald

In “Remember Me,” Robert Pattinson, the producer and leading man, displays genuine acting chops as a “Rent”-related cousin of the “Rebel Without a Cause.” He’s Tyler Hawkins, a Strand bookstore worker, sometime New York University student and poetic misfit in the Jack Kerouac-J.D. Salinger mold.

Tyler, who writes and is told he reeks of “Listerine and beer,” lives a la boheme in New York City in 2001 in a hovel with a broken lock with the fast-talking, hard-drinking, fellow Strand employee and NYU student Aidan Hall (Tate Ellington).

Read full review HERE



From About.com

Robert Pattinson's been keeping secrets from us. Pattinson, best known for playing Edward Cullen in the Twilight film series, can in fact act and can carry a film that has nothing to do with vampires or werewolves or high school romances. In the Twilight series pretty much all we've seen Pattinson do is look all dark, intense, and broody. There hasn't been much actual acting required of him thus far as Edward. But his performance in Remember Me makes you wonder where this guy's been hiding and why hasn't he shown off his talent - and not just his stylishly tousled bedroom hair - before this.

Read full review HERE



From Chicago Reader

IIn 1991 a little girl witnesses her mother's murder on an elevated train platform in Brooklyn; ten years later, as a feisty, blue-collar student at New York University (Emilie de Ravin of ABC's Lost), she captures the heart of a brooding rich boy (Robert Pattinson). He's still mourning the death of his brother years earlier, for which he blames his father, a high-powered attorney (Pierce Brosnan, better than his material). Allen Coulter (Hollywoodland) directed this morose and sluggish drama, which gets more mileage from Pattinson's anguished profile than from Will Fetters's thunderously overwritten screenplay. With Chris Cooper and Lena Olin

Read full review HERE



From Philly.com

Like James Dean smoking and brooding through Rebel Without a Cause, Robert Pattinson puffs and sulks - often, impressively, at the same time - in the intense romantic drama Remember Me.

Twilight's pale and immortal lover boy, adopting a New York accent and a slouchy demeanor (the better to reflect his directionlessness by!), is rich kid Tyler Hawkins, an NYU mopester who meets a girl from his global politics class and woos her accordingly.

Read full review HERE



From CinemaBlend

New York City is crawling with self-serious NYU students, styling themselves after James Dean with rumpled clothes and bad attitudes, mooning over a girl they barely know and convinced that their deep feelings are the deepest the world has ever known. As a rule, we hate these kids, and the last thing any of us would want to see is a movie celebrating their youth and idealism and romantic passion-- film students make enough of those as it is. But unfortunately for all of us, this weekend we're stuck with Remember Me, a soppy and self-important story about young love in Manhattan and the "bolts from the blue" that can change lives forever.


Read full review HERE



From MSN Movies

There's going to be a certain amount of controversy about the final moments of "Remember Me," as fairly generic young-love story plot points are given a very specific temporal and geographic location. I'm not going to spoil "Remember Me" for anyone, but I will say that the film tries mightily to earn its final moments, and while it doesn't always succeed, you can feel director Allen Coulter (of the moody, under-seen "Hollywoodland") and writer Will Fetters making an effort.

Read full review HERE


From MetroMix

“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.

Read full review HERE



From Hollywood.com

With every non-Twilight role he chooses, Robert Pattinson seems determined to wipe from our minds the popular image of him as Edward Cullen, the sensitive, chivalrous teen vampire in the blockbuster adaptations of Stephenie Meyers’ bestselling young-adult novels. Last year, he played a decadent, bisexual Salvador Dali in Little Ashes, Paul Morrison’s drama about the artist’s formative years in Madrid; in his latest film, the romantic drama Remember Me, he smokes, drinks, has premarital sex, and engages in variety of other unwholesome activities would surely appall the saintly Edward.


Read full review HERE



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Thanks to Letmesign.com | Spunk-Ransom | Pattinsonlife for the links

Important critics quite positive about Rob

New York Times:

The star, as if you didn’t know, is Robert Pattinson, the moody vampire heartthrob from the “Twilight” series, a conceivably promising, certainly watchable actor in need of an immediate acting intervention.

Mr. Pattinson shoots Mr. Brosnan a lot of dark, hurting looks, but does his best work with Ruby Jerins, an appealing child actress who plays his sister, Caroline. When they’re together, Mr. Pattinson actually seems happy to be on screen: better yet, he doesn’t pull a James Dean Lite, he delivers.

full review

LA Times:

There's only one thing that loves Robert Pattinson more than his legions of hysterical teenage fans and that's the camera.

But this is a movie, not a magazine spread, and therein lies the rub. What the actor hasn't yet found is a way past those soulful eyes into the soul itself. If he does, Pattinson could have the makings of a brilliant career, something more than the hot streak he's got going as the "it" guy of the moment.

full review

Variety:

Then there's the matter of Pattinson's opaqueness. No one could deny that the actor is very watchable, but he's also either incapable of or coy about letting anyone get inside what he's feeling.

full review

Movie Review from EONLINE: Remember Me Should Be Quickly Forgotten

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GRADE: D


Review in a Hurry: A rich student attending the James Dean School of Brooding (Robert Pattinson) falls for a shaggy girl from the other side of the tracks (Emilie de Ravin). The result: Tear-jerking histrionics squarely aimed at the high-school set, with turgid pacing, a borderline offensive ending and performances ranging from overblown to vaudevillian.

The Bigger Picture: Remember Me is the story of Tyler (Pattinson), a brooding New York college student who smokes cigarettes on his fire escape, shaves intermittently, writes tortured thoughts to his dead brother in a leather-bound journal, and has a tattoo of said dead brother on his chest. In other words, Tyler appears to have been created by a focus group made up of lovelorn 14-year-old girls.

After our hero gets into a scrape with an officer from Queens, roommate Aidan (a hyperschticky Tate Ellington) suggests that Tyler romance the cop's daughter, Ally (de Ravin). Ally has her own baggage, having witnessed her mom's murder on a subway platform. The two of them eventually hook up, but only after both Ally and Tyler happen to have suffered minor facial injuries. (They're both bruised souls. Get it? Get it?)

Everything in this movie is hyped as a mega-major deal. When Tyler's little sister, Caroline, (Ruby Jerins) gets her hair cut by mean schoolmates, the musical score dips to the tragedy level of a fatal car accident; estranged father Charles (Pierce Brosnan) rushes to be near Caroline, and Tyler will not leave Caroline's side until she falls asleep.

Finally, real tragedy comes around.

Given all the marketing surrounding the flick, it's no spoiler to say it involves Sept. 11. But the use of those history-changing attacks—as, essentially, a vehicle for tear-jerking romance—feels cheap and manipulative. It's very telling that during the film's heaviest scenes—including the couple's first kiss and the climax—the audience members as a press screening didn't cry. They laughed.

The 180—a Second Opinion: If you thought New Moon was genius, this movie will be your Casablanca.




E!Online

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