Words//Gemma Ross
Twitter//@fooals
Twitter//@fooals
REMEMBER: ★★★★★★✩✩✩✩ (6/10)
Starring - Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, and Dean Norris
Starring - Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, and Dean Norris
Back in December, I decided to look through the list of 'the top 20 independent films you need to see in 2016', and ironically, the film REMEMBER stuck in my mind the most (get it?!), so I've been on the look-out for it since the year began. After finally catching the action/drama, I couldn't quite decide if I was disappointed, or just really tired and not able to concentrate enough to enjoy it. In all honesty, it was probably the latter.
So here we have Zev, a 90-year-old Jewish man who lived through World War 2, and has dementia. He's sent on a mission after his wife dies, to kill the man who murdered his family during the holocaust. Sounds pretty weird, right? It is, trust me. Watching a senior chase people around with a gun for an hour and a half is not the way I expected to spend my night, but despite this sounding mildly entertaining, it isn't as much as you would think. With a slightly lacking narrative and very A-line plot, REMEMBER refuses to be a film that sinks in to the typical independent genre, or even action genre, and falls somewhere as being a fairly plain - yet arty - drama. It's accompanying soundtrack reminds me of something that was dug out of an old thriller, which doesn't fit at all, and serves very little purpose to it's overall finish. By the time the film is 40 minutes in, I'm wondering why it's been rated as one of the best independent flicks of the year, and why I'm even bothering to review it for the Indie Awakening series in general. But hallej-fucking-lujah, it all finally kicks off from it's tedious tendencies and moves on to something that fits it's action genre a little more after a full HOUR. Dean Norris, better known as Hank in Breaking Bad, pops up as a cop (funnily enough), and creates the most intense and intriguing scene in the entire film.
For a movie that builds up for over an hour and includes 60% fillers, I spent the entire time thinking that I'd eventually rate this no higher than 4/10. But the tables turn in the final scene, and I'm reminded of the good old endings of SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and how I'm a massive sucker for films with clever finales. So all in all, I guess it's a little better than I thought it would be, but mainly due to the 'oh my god I didn't see that coming' element at the end. For a film named 'Remember', it isn't actually very memorable at all. Ironic.
For a movie that builds up for over an hour and includes 60% fillers, I spent the entire time thinking that I'd eventually rate this no higher than 4/10. But the tables turn in the final scene, and I'm reminded of the good old endings of SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and how I'm a massive sucker for films with clever finales. So all in all, I guess it's a little better than I thought it would be, but mainly due to the 'oh my god I didn't see that coming' element at the end. For a film named 'Remember', it isn't actually very memorable at all. Ironic.