7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The darkest chapter of the 20th century collides with a contemporary mission of revenge.
Starring: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Dean Norris, Bruno Ganz, Jürgen ProchnowThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Note: While no outright spoilers are posted in this review, it’s impossible to discuss certain plot points in Remember without
at least hinting at a major reveal. Therefore, those adept at “reading between the lines” are encouraged to skip down to the technical
portions of the review, below.
The entirety of the “twist” at the core of Remember is in fact contained in the film’s very title. The ostensible meaning of this
imperative would seem to be (and can certainly be taken as) a command never to forget the horrors of the Holocaust, something that has
become even more urgent with the passing of time, the passing of survivors, and a natural attrition and atrophying of the visceral impact
those horrors inflicted on mid-century Mankind. While there are of course the radical fringe elements that completely deny the fact that the
Holocaust ever occurred, what’s perhaps just as troubling (or at least nearly as troubling) is the increasingly sanguine reactions that
younger folks especially seem to have to the wholesale slaughter of millions of people, an element that makes things like the Shoah Project
so important. In my own hometown of Portland, Oregon, there are a couple of Jewish retirement homes where I’ve frequently provided
musical entertainment that still have a few (a rapidly diminishing few) who have the telltale tattoos scrawled across their
forearms, a chilling reminder of outrages long passed but obviously inescapable. One of the kind of odd things about this, and one
which plays at least tangentially into Remember’s subtext, is the fact that many of these survivors understandably don’t want to
dwell on the past, and some in fact resolutely refuse to even discuss their experiences in the camps (a “flip side” analogy can be found in
many members of the Greatest Generation, who similarly refrain from discussing their heroics in fighting Nazism during World War II). A
nursing home at least somewhat like those I visit in the Pacific Northwest is the starting place for Remember’s somewhat twisted tale
of revenge and, ultimately, identity. The film’s big “twist” may be seen coming a mile away from virtually the get go, at least for those attuned
to the tendency of some contemporary screenwriters to indulge in so much misdirection that suspicions almost inevitably accrue as to
what’s “really” going on, but even putting aside that potential dissipator of climactic intensity, the film offers some excellent performances
and an elegiac ambience that makes it an often riveting viewing experience.
Remember is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shot digitally with Arri products (including the Arri Amira, the first time I recall seeing this camera listed on IMDb for films I've personally reviewed), this boasts a typically glossy, sleek if often fairly shallow looking image. Egoyan and cinematographer Paul Sarossy favor what appear to be natural lighting conditions, though several longer segments have been bathed in a slightly amber hue, leading to just a touch of murk and less than fulsome shadow definition. In the bright daytime, and especially when the film ventures out of doors, the image pops extremely well, with abundant levels of fine detail, an element helped by the repeated use of extreme close-ups (often with the backgrounds almost impressionistically out of focus, perhaps to indicate Zev's addled state of mind). The palette looks healthy and natural, and there are no issues with image instability or with compression anomalies.
Remember features a workmanlike but hardly awe inspiring DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which creates most of its immersion from well placed ambient environmental effects and from Mychael Danna's elegiac, low string graced score. Zev is a pianist of some note (sorry), and so there are several interludes where he supposedly tickles the ivories. (This is neither here nor there, and isn't a soundtrack issue per se, but this is now the second film I've recently reviewed—the other being Heartless—where the stars are badly in need of "finger synching" coaching when pretending to play the piano. I have a good friend who is an internationally known dialect coach who zings from film and television set to film and television set helping stars master the ins and outs of various patois, and I'm beginning to think I could forge a well paying career helping actors mimic pianism more effectively than Plummer does in this outing.) Fidelity is fine and there are no issues with damage, dropouts or distortion.
Remember may not be, well, unforgettable, but it's reasonably compelling and benefits from the combined gravitas of Plummer and Landau. Still, the film works way too hard to get to its "twist" (any film that goes out of its way to prevent the audience from seeing a salient piece of information is letting the cat out of the bag from the get go, at least for armchair "twist guessers" like yours truly). Something about even having a "twist" in a film ostensibly about the horrors of the Holocaust grates at least a little on my personal sensibilities, but your mileage may vary. Technical merits are strong, and with caveats noted, Remember comes Recommended.
2012
2018
2018
2022
2018
2016
2014
2014
2016
2017
2018
2017
2016
2019
2017
2010
2019
2013
2018
2015