TheCelebrityCafe.com Reviews 'How To Be'

Okay, I admit it: I’m a Robert Pattinson fan. And it’s not because I admire his creatively gelled hair (although it is impressive), or because I can’t get enough of Twilight (I haven’t read the books). I’m a Robert Pattinson fan because not so long ago—before he starred in Twilight, or lifeless flicks like Remember Me—he made a wonderful film called How to Be. It’s a film so good—and one which he is so good in—that I’m still waiting for him to take a break from playing James Dean wannabees, and return to his How to Be greatness.

Pattinson plays Art, a twenty-something going through a quarter-life crisis. When his girlfriend dumps him and he moves back in with his parents, he’s got nothing going for him except his songwriting and his job at the local supermarket. The problem is, he’s not very good at either one. After he discovers a self-help book called It’s Not Your Fault, he spends his inheritance and hires the book’s elderly author to move in with him and become his life coach.

If the setup sounds similar to something you’ve seen in any number of films about “the misunderstood outsider who discovers what life is all about,” I’ll ruin the surprise and let you know: How to Be is not that movie, and Art is not your typical misunderstood antihero.

Art wants to be a musician, but doesn’t have much talent. He wants to be close to his parents, but he doesn’t have anything in common with them. He thinks he’s depressed, but he’s really just in a rut.

It’s hard to articulate what makes this film so great. For one, there’s the music. Despite Art’s lack of musical talent, the film has a killer soundtrack. The songs in How to Be do something akin to what Sufjan Stevens’ music did for Little Miss Sunshine. They are playful and wink at the audience, letting us know that Art’s on screen melodramatics are meant to be played for laughs, not tears.

Then there’s Pattinson’s British accent. Other than Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, this is the only film to date where he gets a chance to play an Englishman and speak in his true accent. His American accent, though technically good, tends to sound stilted. In How to Be, Pattinson’s voice has a range that is usually stifled by his impassive characters and their American accents.

Finally, there’s Art himself, who is disarmingly disheveled. His clothes are either too big or too small. He eats brimming bowls of cereal that overflow onto the table. His hair is long, uncombed, and not mussed up by a professional stylist. Basically, the poor guy just can’t get it together.

Pattinson aptly embodies Art’s disheveled state. Maybe it’s because this is pre-millionaire, pre-magazine cover boy Pattinson, but there is something different about this performance. It’s more genuine, more creative, and less encumbered than ones he’s given since.

Writer and director Oliver Irving told PopMatters in 2009 that he was working on his second film, which would be about two female scientists. I’ll be watching for that one.

As for Pattinson, I’m still rooting for him. Here’s to hoping he can parlay his fame into working with more talents like Irving, who want to cast Robert Pattinson the actor, not Robert Pattinson the sex symbol or Robert Pattinson the brooding introvert.

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News of the Worlds Remember Me Review

Remember Me (12A)

Verdict: You sure as hell won't forget it ***

 By Robbie Collin, 03/04/2010

HUH? Guh? And furthermore, whuh-thuh-fuh?

 Call off the search. Burn the ballot papers. The winner of 2010's Most Completely Wackadoo Film Ending has been found.
 Robert Pattinson's Remember Me - a teen-pleasing, low-key indie romance with one of the most demented final twists ever.
I'm not going to reveal what it is here. And after much chin-stroking I'm not convinced - as many reviewers from the US of A are - that it's evil, amoral and cheap.
 It's just such a jaw-droppingly WEIRD decision that it'll turn off a fair portion of the audience in one slow zoom-out.

The film kicks off in 1991, with a harrowing scene in which a young girl sees her mum gunned down on the subway by two muggers.
Fast-forward 10 years and we meet Tyler Hawkins (R-Pattz), a brooding New York student whose relationship with his business hotshot dad (Pierce Brosnan) is at an all-time low.
After a run-in with a tough cop (Chris Cooper), Tyler gets his revenge by bedding the cop's daughter Ally (Lost's Emilie de Ravin), who happens to be the young girl from the intro. They bond over shared traumas, mope around R-Pattz's grungy digs, and enjoy some gold-lit rumpo to the music of Sigur Ros.
This all combines into a superior slice of teen angst, and Pattinson proves what anyone with half a brain realised after New Moon - forget the lunatic hype, the guy's actually a decent actor.
 But to be honest, the only thing you'll be thinking about afterwards is THAT ending, and whether it's a genuinely heartfelt twist or the cheapest play for tears you've ever seen. Truth is, it's a bit of both.
 OUT NOW

Source - http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/entertainment/Drama/770743/Remember-Me-12A.html

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

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 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

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. :-)

schnuffel1990

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

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

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

More reviews:

MTV - Kurt Loder
Hollywood Chicago
Richard Roeper
We Are Movie Geeks
North Shore Movies
Week Rewind
Detroit News
The Globe and Mail
What Would Toto Watch
Reel Loop
Atomic Popcorn
Denver Movies
Studio Briefing
Playback STL
IFC
The Movie Retrevier
Entertainment.ir
San Francisco Bay Guardian
The Columbus Distpatch
International Business Times
Hitfix
NBC Bay Area

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.

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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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Mark Reviews Movies
Austin Chronicle
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Brian Orndoff
Big Picture Big Sound
Screen It
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AV Club
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One Guys Opinion
Take40
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Long Island Press
Spirituality and Practice
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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

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

WARNING: SPOILERS!

'Remember Me' Director Allen Coulter talks about the Twilight Mania, Paparazzi and Rob

Twilight is part of this movie even if you didn't intend it, in the way it brings attention to the movie and just the fact that Summit is releasing it. How has that worked for you?
When we cast him Twilight wasn't out, and I didn't know who he was. That was an advantage, because I cast him just because I liked him. We hope people will go to this movie who might not have pursued it otherwise. If he wasn't this phenom, you wouldn't automatically assume that tens of thousands of teenage girls would show up the first day. We hope that is the case. But this is a movie I made for adults.

When did you realize you had the biggest star in the world in your movie?
Certainly the first day, when we had the thousands of girls standing outside from dawn until dusk. We realized what we were in for. It was not easy, believe me.

We understand there was one day where you snapped at the paparazzi?
We found ourselves in a situation with the movie that we never expected to be in. No one had an idea that basically we had unleashed Elvis. It was tough from the very beginning. All of us were a little gobsmacked by this. We just struggled the best we could. That was just a day that I felt the sense of entitlement the paparazzi had, that they had the right to demand certain kinds of shots. We were just trying to make the day, the sun was falling, the last shot that we did, that was it. They were angry they couldn't get a shot of him. They felt it was their right, that we should accommodate them. I lost it, and they deserved it. They deserve worse. That was the one time I couldn't hold back.

What inspired you to cast Rob to begin with?
We needed someone who could embody a certain kind of angst that one feels at 21, and the complications and complex relationships that grow from the confusions of being 21. And Rob seemed in our initial meeting to understand that and grasp that, but have enough distance on it to be able to act that.


Read the full interview at the source

A lot of new 'Remember Me' Reviews - Spoilers

From The Huffington Post

As a joke, I once had a roll of stickers printed up, which I employed to express a certain bewilderment with the world. They were bright orange and they contained a single question:

“Whose stupid idea was this?”

You can see the myriad applications. Were it possible to apply them to movies, I’d have run out a long time ago – though certainly one could easily be resurrected for Remember Me, a movie for which those stickers were made.

Read full review HERE

From The Desert Sun

I’ve never been a fan of Robert Pattinson. That assessment is based on the actor’s most famous role to date, the vampire Edward in the “Twilight” films. I thought he delivered wooden performances in both movies.

But after watching him in the new film “Remember Me,” I’m intrigued. He carried the movie from its shaky start to its heart-wrenching conclusion.

Unlike his “Twilight” co-star, Taylor Lautner, Pattinson is making brave career choices. While Lautner will soon be busy working on standard thrillers like “Abduction” or sure-fire blockbusters like “Stretch Armstrong,” Pattinson will bury himself in art-house films like “Bel Ami” and “Water for Elephants.”

Taking a cue from Johnny Depp, Pattinson peppers his resumé with iconic roles such as Edward and memorable characters like the one he played in “Remember Me.” He stars as Tyler, a rebel with a cause who has serious daddy issues.

Full review HERE

From TND.com

“Remember Me” could have been called “The Many Moods of Robert Pattinson’s Hair.”

Scruffy, coiffed, combed, exploding like an M-80 in a haystack, flattened by sleep, wet from having a pot of spaghetti water dumped on him … this young actor’s follicles are the star of the show.

Pattinson (of the “Twilight” saga, naturally) plays Tyler Hawkins, estranged from his rich, powerful and remote lawyer father (Pierce Brosnan) and living in abject squalor in a Soho apartment. He’s angry and sullen and rudely smokes in inappropriate situations. He audits classes at New York University but apparently has no ambition or goals.

We’re led to believe that Tyler’s malaise is a result of the suicide of his older brother, but perhaps he’s just a jerk. It looks as if the actor absorbed all the angst-riddled mannerisms of the late James Dean but overlooked the humanity.

Full review HERE

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Rob's Roundtable Interview With ComingSoon.net - Spoilers

Robert Pattinson's instantaneous and often overwhelming star power is fantastic for the moment. But what happens when "The Twilight Saga" comes to a close and his herds of adoring fans find another up and comer to fawn over? If Pattinson has anything to do with it, he'll have moved on from simply being a Hollywood heartthrob and have established himself as a reputable actor. Not only does Remember Me provide him with the opportunity to be remembered long after his claim to fame has come and gone, but it allows him to deliver a similarly important concept to moviegoers: the value of moving on but never forgetting.

Pattinson stars as Tyler, an NYU student struggling with a vast amount of demons he's not quite sure really exist. It's fortunate that Pattinson can't relate to his character in two respects: he didn't have a troubled youth and that disconnect made the role much more intriguing to tackle. During a roundtable interview he explained, "All the people who I've met who are troubled teenagers, you meet their family and their family is like, 'I don't know what to do. He's just – I have no idea what his problem is.'" Tyler definitely has problems to work out, but a recent family tragedy further exacerbates the situation causing him to get unnecessarily heated and even violent.

Tyler finds solace in Ally (Emilie de Ravin), a peer with her own troubled past. A habit of indulging in dessert before eating the main course reflects the importance Ally places on living in the moment. De Ravin said, "I think a lot of her personality traits stem from losing her mother at a young age. Even the little things like the whole dessert thing, it's just basically saying that why wait for things in life? Take hold of the day and enjoy it and respect it and appreciate it and appreciate the people around you and don't be fearful of living." Using her passion for life, Ally eases Tyler's troubles and nestles into his heart. It took much more than rehearsal time to be able to convey the zeal behind that relationship on screen. "We spent a lot of time together just getting to know each other as people." De Ravin added, "That's why when we were actually shooting, everything just sort of fell into place and felt very natural and not contrived in any way."

De Ravin's character doesn't only share a particularly strong connection with Tyler, she has one with her father, police detective Sgt. Neil Craig (Chris Cooper), too. Just as Tyler doesn't know where to direct his anger, neither does Neil. Ever since his wife was murdered right in front of young Ally's eyes, he's carried on as a very protective father, often overly so. Tyler feels the brunt of Neil's desperation to keep his little girl safe when the two get into a scuffle.

Pattinson recalled, "Chris is deceptively incredibly strong." He added, "I remember I'd seen a lot of stuff with Chris Cooper and I stupidly said, 'Isn't he always small?' Because I don't know, I've always had this image of him being quite small and then he turned up on the day and he could literally throw me around the room."

Luckily for Pattinson, Cooper was aware of the intensity of the scene and how to handle it. "Everybody was aware of how close the camera was and how much force to be used on working with Robert." But Cooper points out that this is no ordinary fight scene. He explained, "given the circumstances [Tyler is] confronting me about what and why he developed this relationship with my daughter and it was just simply a ferocious father's reaction to what the father interpreted as mean and mean spirited."

De Ravin wholeheartedly agreed, "[Neil], as [Ally] is, is scared because they're all each other's had for the last ten years, so that then sort of manifests."

And that's not the only scene infused with intensity. Pattinson found a moment between his character and his father particularly difficult to film due to an issue that nearly everyone can relate to. "It was supposed to be one of those arguments where you feel like, this is the time I'm really going to let my dad or whatever have it, and then the only thing that comes out is this hysterical yabbering." When you're overwhelmed with fervor for a particular matter, there's no controlling the words that can flood out. Tyler's vehemence often skews his better judgment, particularly when it comes his father's negligence of his young sister.

That particular matter generates one of Remember Me's most remarkable elements, Tyler's relationship with his little sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins). On top of struggling with the same familial misfortune as Tyler, she struggles with a faulty connection to her father and is a victim of bullying at school. Tyler takes it upon himself to come to Caroline's rescue whenever necessary. De Ravin was nearly speechless when discussing her youngest co-star, "If there's anything else going on on the screen when I watch the film, it doesn't matter. She's amazing. She's so – and in observing her when I worked with her but also when I saw her working with Robert. They had amazing chemistry too. They were just perfect together."

Pattinson has two older sisters of his own, but appreciated the opportunity to adopt a younger one. "Ruby in the film, is kind of like the ideal little sister. Even in reality she's like the coolest 11-year-old I've met in a long time." He particularly likes the scene "where [Tyler] goes into the school to confront Caroline's bullies." It may not be the most appropriate course of action, but it has a sense of justification. Pattinson added, "It's just a fantasy thing for me, being the older brother, you always want to do stuff like that. It sounds like the most unprofound idea, but it did feel really good doing it."

Even with the profound nature of the characters' circumstances, nothing can compare to the film's conclusion. Beginning in the year 1991 and then jumping to the year 2001, there's no denying that 9/11 will eventually make some sort of impact. There's no doubt that once that momentous scene arrives, audience members will have conflicting opinions concerning its inclusion and Cooper was well aware of the potential controversy. "I was a little concerned about the use of that as, for lack of better words, a device in the film." After viewing the film he was confident that rather than using the event as a means to evoke emotion, director Allen Coulter respectfully recognized the victims. "When I saw 'Remember Me' I said, 'Okay, that's possibly one of those individuals.' I thought it was fair and valid." De Ravin said, "It's a huge part of the year the movie's set in, so the film wouldn't be doing justice to that year without involving that."

Then there's the added concern that Remember Me could be too profound for the demographic Pattinson's involvement will inevitably attract. Screenwriter Will Fetters points out that they were obligated to create a PG film from what he considered to be an "R script." However, the film did earn its PG rating and Fetters is confident that it is an "adult-themed story that can be experienced by young people."

That's a good thing considering throngs of 'Twihards' will likely invade theaters come March 12th just as they invaded the film's New York set. Pattinson's star power is undeniable and everyone involved in the making of Remember Me felt it through the massive presence of Pattinson's fans. De Ravin admitted, "It was distracting at times." She noted that the set was very accessible. "It's not like you can close down Central Park." She continued, "If Rob and I are just trying to get the logistics together of our rehearsal and figure something out you've got everyone watching you and just knowing that, even if you're not looking at them watching you, just knowing that [made it] trying to focus."

Cooper joked, "You're just glad it's not happening to you." He recalled, "I'm taking the train back and forth because I'm not needed everyday and here I am opening up my bags to put my clothes in the drawer, I turn on the TV and it's a news flash that, 'Robert Pattinson's been hit by a taxi cab,' and I'm thinking, 'Well do we have a film?'"

Even with the taxi incident, Pattinson was accepting of the situation. "It's always going to be difficult when you're just trying to play a normal guy and then you go around the corner and everyone's taking pictures." He assured us, "It got better throughout the shoot. As soon as you get used to it, it just becomes like any other job. It's just part of the furniture."

So what's next for the series that earned Pattinson such a massive amount of adoring fans? Other than The Twilight Saga: Eclipse hitting theaters on June 30th, nothing quite yet. Pattinson explained, "I'm only doing two more films – oops - one, maybe two more films [laughs], before we do any version of 'Breaking Dawn.'" That one Pattinson is doing with "Declan Donnellan who's an English theater director. I'm in his film called 'Bel Ami.'" The oops-worthy film? Perhaps he's referring to Francis Lawrence's Water for Elephants in which he'll star alongside Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz. Regardless, Pattinson lamented, "There's only so much you can do. It would be annoying to have films coming out like every three months, so you can't do too many, but at the same time you do things to try and make sure you don't get pigeonholed in any particular area."

He should discuss typecasting with Cooper. He's the quintessential testy cop. Having played the role numerous times, Cooper hopefully exclaimed, "I've been trying to put the word out. I would love to play a comedy. I'd love to." He recollected, "The only person that ever took slightly a chance with me was Spike Jonze in 'Adaptation.'" Unfortunately he had to add, "But then nobody else has taken a chance like Spike. I've gone back to, 'Oh okay, play the tough guy, play the military, FBI characters.' That's just how it works out." Even though he considers his characters all-too-similar, he's still very thankful for every opportunity that comes his way. Of John Wells' The Company Men he said, "They're coming to me to work with Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner and Ben [Affleck]. It's a great compliment and it was a great little ensemble of actors and all of them were dealing with this loss of and the insecurity of losing their jobs and I think it's a timey story and, once again, it's valid filmmaking for me." That film has yet to secure a distributor in the US, but Cooper has enough on his plate to keep him busy for the time being. He's in "'The Town,' [which] Ben Affleck directed. I play his father in that. It's just one scene but it's a really good, really good script. 'The Tempest,' Julie Taymor and I just finished working with John Sayles for the fifth time on a film called 'Baryo' about the American occupation of the Philippines."

As for de Ravin, it's no surprise that she'll be busy in Hawaii for a little while longer. After season four of "Lost" she was put on "a holding deal for season five." That secured her character, Claire Littleton, up until now, but with a show like "Lost" you never know what'll happen and which cast member will be the next to fall victim to some force on the island. De Ravin assured us, "Yeah, we're still going. I've been working a lot and we've got what? Like three episodes left to shoot." So it seems as though we can look forward to enjoying Claire's presence up until the very end. As for de Ravin's plans for after the show concludes she said, "I'm looking at projects to work on right now. I'm taking meetings, but I'd like to go home for a couple of weeks."

Pattinson, Cooper and de Ravin are certainly unforgettable in the acting realm, but will Remember Me have a lasting impact? You can see for yourself when it arrives in theaters on March 12.

ComingSoon.Net

Leigh Paatsch Review (Australia Herald Sun)

"Pretty boy pretty good"



Put-up-or-shut-up time for Robert Pattinson is not officially scheduled until the sun finally sets on the Twilight phenomenon.

So fair play to the British heart-throb for skipping well ahead of the program and testing himself in trying circumstances for Remember Me.

Obviously very eager to prove he is more than just a poster-friendly face, Pattinson is on a mission here to flash some legit acting credentials.

In spite of the odd awkward moment in Remember Me, even the most churlish observer will have to admit the guy has got what it takes to stick around a while in this business.

In terms of story and style, Remember Me is best described as a dirty, downbeat distant relative of Dear John. Both films share the same turn-of-the-last-decade timeframe, and exploit a delicately distressed romance to simultaneously warm the heart and empty the tear ducts.

Pattinson plays Tyler Hawkins, a poor little rich boy student-slumming it in a grotty New York apartment to get back at his heartless tycoon of a dad (Pierce Brosnan).

Early on, heavy hints are dropped that Tyler has other, non-parent-baiting reasons for being such a chain-smoking, binge-drinking, babe-slaying no-hoper.

All will adequately explained in the fullness of time, particularly once Tyler softens up his hard-man act to start a relationship with cute classmate Ally (Emilie de Ravin).

In the interest of added complications, it also turns out that Tyler recently had a run-in with Ally’s father, a tough New York cop (Chris Cooper). Naturally, Tyler keeps this sensitive matter a secret until the worst possible moment.

So far, so relatively predictable then. Or so you would think. To be honest, Remember Me gets quite good quite quickly once it completes the business of sketching out its familiar storyline.

A good deal of time is spent getting to the bottom of Tyler and Ally’s respective family problems, and the payoff earned is genuinely compelling. And sincerely moving, too. The pairing of Pattinson with de Ravin is the key here. In their many scenes together, the stars effectively channel that unique "you and me against the world" vibe that young lovers everywhere know so well.

It is only when Pattinson breaks free of his leading lady’s intense gravitational pull that he sometimes misjudges his performance and tries some of James Dean’s old moves.

A scene where Tyler bursts into the school of his younger sister and roughs up one of her bullying classmates is an absolute howler. Then again, perhaps the script can be blamed. Not even Sean Penn at the height of his powers would have found a way to emerge with his dignity intact.

All in all, Remember Me is a faintly memorable romantic drama that proves there are bigger, better and not so pale-and-precious things to come from Robert Pattinson.

Rating: 3 Stars out of five.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/film-review-remember-me/story-e6frf8r6-1225839259838