Remember Me – DVD Review

Yes, Remember Me is a love story. But it’s so much more than that. It’s about accepting and learning to love your family. It’s about finding your own way. It’s about learning to live in the moment, because you never really know what’s going to happen.

The Film

The most important thing to know about this film is to watch it with an open mind. Forget what you’ve heard about it. Forget what you think you know about Robert Pattinson. This film has many layers and is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It’s a bittersweet story that will stay with you long after the credits.

Yes, the love story between Pattinson’s Tyler Hawkins and Emilie de Ravin’s Ally Craig is the focus of the movie. But it goes far beyond a simple boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-fall-in-love scenario. To me, this is a story about forgiveness and acceptance. Both Tyler and Ally experience family tragedies that shape their realities and change their relationships with their families. The true journey in this film is coming to terms with those losses and finding a way to be happy again.

One of the best things about this movie is its sense of reality. Just like in real life, not everything goes smoothly. There is happiness and sadness. There are moments that make you cringe and moments that have you laughing at loud. It is realistic. The journeys these characters take seems, well … real (if a bit sped-up for the sake of a two-hour movie).

It is the ending of Remember Me that is particularly striking. It is undeniably sad, but at the same has a feeling of hope that shines through the sadness. Again, it is incredibly bittersweet.

The actors deserve a great deal of credit for their performances. Pattinson brings Tyler’s restless anger and unsettled frustration to the screen in a way that is never over the top, but instead almost underplayed, as if Tyler is simply resigned to the way things are. Emilie de Ravin proofs to be a good balance and match for him as Ally. Ruby Jerins is delightful as Tyler’s sweet, serious and witty younger sister Caroline. And Tate Ellington frequently steals scenes as Tyler’s best friend and roommate Aidan. And, of course, Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan, who play Ally and Tyler’s fathers, Neil and Charles, are the rocks of this film.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: The audio and video on this DVD are good. It’s in widescreen, and the images are quite clear. The audio is crisp and clear as well.

Commentaries: Perhaps the biggest draw as far as the special features are concerned is the two commentary tracks. Director Allen Coulter has one by himself, and there is a separate one with the cast, including Pattinson. It’s nice to have them divided up this way. While both get into the technical aspects of making the movie, it allows both the moviemaker and the cast to have their own time in the commentary spotlight, instead of trying to cram it all into one track.

Special Features: The only other special feature offered on the DVD besides the commentary tracks is a behind-the-scenes feature on the making of the movie. It’s certainly worth viewing and gives viewers an inside look into how the film came together. But this is the one area where the DVD is lacking. Some extended or deleted scenes would have been a great addition.

Conclusion: Fans of Pattinson undoubtedly buy or rent this DVD. As well they should. But those who don’t know who Pattinson is or only think of him as “that actor from Twilight” should give this a try. It’s a good film and step in the right direction for its star.

The Film: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: