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Post by Ace on Mar 2, 2010 16:50:02 GMT -5
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 13:09:49 GMT -5
Variety's review (with Todd McCarthy instead of that other odd chap). Check out the conspiracy-mongering in the talkback by the RP groupies. Too hilarious! www.variety.com/review/VE1117942359.html?categoryid=31&cs=1Remember MeA Summit Entertainment release of an Underground Films production. Produced by Nicholas Osborne, Trevor Engelson. Executive producers, Carol Cuddy, Robert Pattinson. Directed by Allen Coulter. Screenplay, Will Fetters. By TODD MCCARTHY Fate sticks its foot out to trip all the characters in all the worst ways in "Remember Me," a grave romantic drama with grandiose thematic intentions. Framed in a portentous manner with a calamitous ending that will only come as a surprise to those who haven't been paying attention, the modestly scaled film delivers some moving and affecting moments amid a preponderance of scenes of frequently annoying people behaving badly. It is precisely the young female fans of star Robert Pattinson who will react most wrenchingly to this doomed romance, which should enjoy a short but sweet B.O. life. Pattinson is in heavy James Dean mode here as a reckless, unwashed, chain-smoking, intensely confused pretty boy named Tyler who, as Dean did in "East of Eden" and "Rebel Without a Cause," has major father issues. Turning his back, at least for the moment, on his family's wealth -- dad Charles (Pierce Brosnan) is a mighty Wall Street lawyer, while classy mom Diane (Lena Olin) has remarried and is raising precocious 11-year-old artist Caroline (Ruby Jerins) -- Tyler rooms with crude low-life Aidan (Tate Ellington) while occasionally attending NYU classes between drinking bouts. On a dare, Tyler hits on hot little classmate Ally (Emilie de Ravin), a working-class Queens lass who's the only daughter of a cop (Chris Cooper) who recently threw Tyler in jail after a drunken brawl outside a nightclub. As revealed in the mortifying opening scene, Ally, as a little girl, witnessed her mother's murder on an elevated subway platform; she and Tyler are thus able to morbidly bond over lost loved ones, since his own older brother committed suicide on his 22nd birthday -- and Tyler's 22nd is just around the corner. As if this weren't enough ominous emotional baggage for one movie, there's plenty more, from the pain little Caroline feels from being ignored by her absent father to the story's overarching historical setting; suffice it to say that the action, as announced at the outset, is set in 2001. Debuting screenwriter Will Fetters structures the drama so that Tyler's and Ally's love affair, mostly conducted in the former's squalid apartment, might seem like an escape from, and potential purgative of, the jagged emotions that plague them both. Unfortunately, the romance never feels intense or deep enough to fully serve this purpose; director Allen Coulter would have achieved a significantly greater connection had he been able to sweep the viewer up in the heady feeling of two wounded people falling hopelessly in love for the first time and trying, but failing, to prevent the other forces in their lives from gnawing away at their fleeting happiness. This atmosphere of temporary escape never translates into desired privileged moments, partly because the lovers must share their nest with Aidan, one of the most gratingly obnoxious roommates ever invented. Whenever he turns up, you just want him to get lost, and matters aren't helped by Ellington, who adamantly delivers most of his inane remarks at the top of his voice, as if that's the only way he can get anyone to listen to him. It's painful. 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. One needs to palpably feel Tyler's turmoil, which at times, particularly when his father disappoints Caroline most callously, nearly eats him alive. Tyler and Ally once or twice become physically rambunctious but never get carried away, resulting in less-than-fulsome viewer investment in their relationship. Best known for her six seasons on "Lost," de Ravin registers well with an agreeably assertive screen presence. Beautiful in some shots and almost ordinary-looking in others, the diminutive Aussie thesp has a chameleonlike presence that calls to mind a cross between Julie Christie and Samantha Morton. Cooper nails the fear and frustration of a limited man who's already lost one significant woman in his life and senses he's about to lose another. Brosnan concisely registers the frosty and seemingly unthawable outer layer of a downtown titan. Even if you know, or think you know, what's coming at the end, the emotional undertow is hard to resist and is of a piece with the picture's articulated philosophical position about doing all one can during one's brief moment on earth. Gotham locations are evocatively but unostentatiously used, Marcelo Zarvos' fine score stirs added emotional turbulence, and tech contributions are more than solid. Camera (Deluxe color), Jonathan Freeman; editor, Andrew Mondshein; music, Marcelo Zarvos; music supervisor, Alexandra Patsavas; production designer, Scott P. Murphy; art director, Katya DeBear; set decorator, Diane Lederman; costume designer, Susan Lyall; sound (DTS/Dolby Digital), Ken Ishii; supervising sound editor, Dave Paterson; re-recording mixers, Reilly Steele, Paterson; visual effects supervisor, Aaron Weintraub; digital visual effects, Mr. X; associate producer, Michael Lannan; assistant director, Joseph Reidy; casting, Joanna Colbert, Richard Mento. Reviewed at Aidikoff screening room, Beverly Hills, March 4, 2010. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 113 MIN.
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 13:20:12 GMT -5
From The Hollywood Reporter
Film Reviews Remember Me -- Film Review By Kirk Honeycutt, March 08, 2010 12:00 ET "Remember Me"
Bottom Line: A strong romantic drama in which Robert Pattinson and Emilie de Ravin really shine.
"Remember Me" is a smart, engaging drama about young love flourishing amid sadness and loss. The story ends on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York, which, depending on your point of view, further underscores the sense of loss implicit in the movie's title or is an unnecessary dramatic ploy to end the film with a devastating twist of fate that immediately connects with every audience member. But to return to the original point: "Remember Me" is a smart, engaging drama about a romance.
With the "Twilight" franchise's Robert Pattinson topping a fine cast -- the actor executive produces as well -- "Remember Me" should attract strong opening-weekend audiences. However, it will find its legs with women young and old who will spark to a romance without the off-color humor and male boorishness that so often accompanies romantic fare these days. Summit Entertainment can expect above-average boxoffice.
In an opening sequence 10 years earlier, a subway mugging turns violent as the World Trade Center's Twin Towers loom ominously in the distance, a dramatic foreshadowing that fortunately does not continue into the rest of the movie. But it does establish the suddenness of tragedy, especially as it affects two families at the center of the film.
Allen Coulter, directing a script by Will Fetters, then proceeds to unfold a story about two young people who share little in common except an inexplicable tragedy in each of their lives from which neither family has fully recovered.
Tyler (Pattinson) comes from Park Avenue comfort, but his brother's suicide has pulled a rug from underneath him. He is a lost soul, and it's not clear he is going to snap out of his funk anytime soon. His divorced father (Pierce Brosnan) has grown tired of his melancholy and disaffection, but his mother (Lena Olin) still has faith in him.
Tyler has two entirely different sources of succor: his kid sister (Ruby Jerins), whom he adores, and his roommate, Aidan (Tate Ellington), who has enough wild-man spirit to get Tyler out of his routine and into a few parties and bars. By the way, Tyler has a way with women.
Ally (Emilie de Ravin) is from a blue-collar family in Queens. Her father (Chris Cooper), a cop, clearly has not recovered from the murder of his wife. On the surface, Ally is less damaged, but one suspects she simply hides her pain better.
The cop and Tyler have a late-night encounter where Tyler's righteousness comes up violently against the cop's hardened weariness. Then, in the movie's one quasi-contrivance, Aidan discovers that the cop's attractive daughter shares a class with Tyler. He persuades his roomie into romancing then dumping the woman as a way to get back at her father.
Predictably, the first part works but not the second, where he is supposed to dump Ally. Instead, the two fall in love.
The movie doesn't make a big point out of the grief that overshadows their lives. It's implicit in their actions and manner. They bond in many ways, not the least of which are over fathers at a loss to meet their kids' emotional needs.
The scenes between Pattinson and de Ravin exude genuine charm. One wants these two to get together. They are likable without being saccharine.
The fathers are harder to read. In a decade, neither seems to have developed a coping mechanism, and Tyler's father's indifference toward his daughter is inexplicable.
Fate, in the form of 9/11, casts all of these character flaws and shortcomings into bold relief. This is, after all, a film of memory and loss. One imagines that any of these characters might be narrating the story years later as they seek to remember those final moments before their world so utterly changed.
The production is clean and polished, with Marcelo Zarvos' understated though persistent score and Jonathan Freeman's meticulous cinematography bringing notable sparkle to this heartfelt drama.
Opens: Friday, March 12 (Summit) Production: Underground Film Prods. Cast: Robert Pattinson, Emilie de Ravin, Chris Cooper, Lena Olin, Tate Ellington, Ruby Jerins, Pierce Brosnan Director: Allen Coulter Screenwriter: Will Fetters Producers: Nicholas Osborne, Trevor Engelson Executive producers: Carol Cuddy, Robert Pattinson Director of photography: Jonathan Freeman Production designer: Scott P. Murphy Music: Marcelo Zarvos Costume designer: Susan Lyall Editor: Andrew Mondshein Rated PG-13, 113 minutes
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Post by Ace on Mar 8, 2010 14:46:46 GMT -5
Variety's review (with Todd McCarthy instead of that other odd chap). Check out the conspiracy-mongering in the talkback by the RP groupies. Too hilarious! I have and . That hack of a chief critic McCarthy and his fence sitting fear induced wishy washy reviews that only show he's too incompetent and needlessly articulate and er opaque to appreciate RPatz's greatness. Who ever heard of a review that was not a rave or a slam? Inconceivable! Seriously ... it's not as if he's Derek Elly writing about The Ghost and Pierce (or the Hurt Locker)
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Post by Ace on Mar 8, 2010 14:49:58 GMT -5
Already posted by Paola in the Media thread but posting it here too to keep all the RM stuf together
Pierce and Robert Pattinson interview each other: (or as ONTD titled it: Pierce talks to a Hobo)
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 15:35:21 GMT -5
Variety's review (with Todd McCarthy instead of that other odd chap). Check out the conspiracy-mongering in the talkback by the RP groupies. Too hilarious! I have and . That hack of a chief critic McCarthy and his fence sitting fear induced wishy washy reviews that only show he's too incompetent and needlessly articulate and er opaque to appreciate RPatz's greatness. Who ever herd of a review that was not a rave or a slam? Inconceivable! Soon they'll be outside picketing. FENCE SITTER! WISHY-WASHY-ER! JAMES DEAN WEARS R-PATZ PAJAMAS! He'll be out there with his leaf rake. "G'wan, ya crazy kids! Get off my lawn!" A snatch from Derek Elley's favorite Broadway tune: You say eether and I say eyether, You say neether and I say nyther; Eether, eyether, neether, nyther, Let's call the whole thing off! You like potato and I like potahto, You like tomato and I like tomahto;
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 15:58:18 GMT -5
Oops! I forgot my favorite:
EARLY VARIETY REVIEW = CONSPIRACY!!!!
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 17:00:41 GMT -5
No joke. Apparently Todd McCarthy's been let go from his long-held chief critic post, along with theater critic David Rooney (duties to be farmed out to freelancing Derek Elley types, apparently). mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/variety-lets-two-of-its-top-critics-go/?src=twt&twt=mediadecodernytIf Variety's cost-cutting measures have sunk this far, how long before they give up the pretense entirely? It's the industry paper of record, after all. Not to say old line print film critics haven't been getting the axe all over. It's a brutal era for print journalism, as my sister who is likely to be laid off soon can attest. I hope McCarthy lands another decent gig. Don't always see eye to eye with him but he knows and loves film and has some historical sense of the medium. One thing I always appreciated from his reviews was his sound judgment on dialogue; if he liked it, it was usually as good as advertised.
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Post by Ace on Mar 8, 2010 17:38:28 GMT -5
Thompson and now McCarthy? For bleeps sake - why bother having the magazine any more if all they have left are hacks like Elly writing freelance? Is Joe Leydon still there?
It was depressing enough looking for reviews on The Ghost Writer to see so many top critics let go and papers closed and so many second tier critics having their reviews syndicated but et tu Variety? *sigh*
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 17:59:00 GMT -5
Thompson and now McCarthy? For bleeps sake - why bother having the magazine any more if all they have left are hacks like Elly writing freelance? Is Joe Leydon still there? It was depressing enough looking for reviews on The Ghost Writer to see so many top critics let go and papers closed and so many second tier critics having their reviews syndicated but et tu Variety? *sigh* I haven't heard anything about Joe Leydon, but he doesn't have McCarthy's seniority, so I suppose he's not as expensive. The reality these short-sighted owners don't seem to get is by letting go an esteemed and writerly critic they're trashing their own brand. Now there's even less to distinguish their product in the marketplace from all the similar chatter. Funny, I can almost imagine some bean counter bringing up the "Remember Me" review and using it speciously to prove he's out of touch with (young) audiences and thus needs to be shown the door. But, ironically, can you really get more oddball and out of touch with audiences than the likes of Derek Elley? But, hey, he comes cheap.
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 19:01:07 GMT -5
From Roger Ebert's Twitter ebertchicago Variety fires Todd McCarthy and I cancel my subscription. He was my reason to read the paper. RIP, schmucks j.mp/bEnHGi 4 minutes ago via web
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Post by Ace on Mar 8, 2010 19:20:18 GMT -5
Anne Thompson has a great take on it blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/03/08/variety_lays_off_its_lifes_blood_critics_mccarthy_and_rooney/Variety Cuts Its Life’s Blood: Critics McCarthy and Rooney At Saturday’s HBO Oscar party, I enjoyed dishing about the upcoming Cannes line-up with Todd McCarthy, Variety’s long-time film critic, who is the paper’s biggest star and the main reason readers all over the world read the august trade. His reviews post first, and are the best read thing in the paper, bar none. The day after the Oscars, publisher Neil Stiles confirms that as a cost-cutting measure, Todd McCarthy and theater critic David Rooney are out. UPDATE: The LAT reports that TV critic Brian Lowry will stay on. Variety can’t afford them, as they couldn’t afford me or editors Michael Speier and Kathy Lyford. But I was a relative newbie, a columnist/blogger. I was a luxury. Problem is, I was well-paid, as were McCarthy and Rooney. Nonetheless, they are necessities. Without them, Variety is doomed. Along with the badly handled recent fracas over Robert Koehler’s review of Iron Cross (which was pulled off the site during a robust Oscar campaign, then later restored) this sends a dubious message to Hollywood: Variety is running out of cash. As vet journalist Chris Willman tweeted me today: “this feels like end of the world as we know it. I can’t even comprehend.” At the Oscars last night, things weren’t going well for Variety. IndieWIRE had laid out several hundred bucks for my secure, fast DSL line, which I shared with Variety, as their air cards were going in and out. IndieWIRE sent out swift news alerts and scored huge traffic with its live Oscar blog, reminding readers to tune in with tweets. Variety barely got the final news alert out, and didn’t have Oscar winners posted on its front page. Variety stalwarts Cynthia Littleton and Tim Gray were tweeting from backstage and the Kodak—going in, neither had as much as 100 followers. I saw it coming. When I left The Hollywood Reporter (which gave me the opportunity to launch the Riskybiz blog, and had already been through several Draconian staff and expense trims) to move to number-one trade Variety, I saw a bigger, fatter, more spendthrift organization accustomed to riding high off the hog. And I saw a trade that was neither in tune with its customers, nor with changing times on the web. Layoffs eventually came. And keep coming. (Here’s Variety’s official management reorganization story, with no mention of staff trims.) But former editor-in-chief Peter Bart had built a respected news organization with a strong staff—and he saw the wisdom of deploying top critics all over the world. That was the center of Variety’s long-range success. It made the paper a global industry must-read. Erudite and learned about cinema, Todd McCarthy gets more hits for his reviews than anyone at the paper. Wait. Variety is behind a pay wall. They don’t care about hits anymore. Don’t they care about premium content? They also lost star news hound Michael Fleming to Deadline Hollywood, which is stealing more readers by the day. Fleming probably saw that he too, was overpaid. And he didn’t want to be rendered invisible. Too bad Variety couldn’t have instituted across-the-board pay cuts for everyone—and saved some jobs and talent. Oh wait. The people at the top would have to cut their salaries too. And what about that giant red Variety logo on top of their Wilshire office tower? How many salaries a year would that cover? While this change brings opportunity for two talented, less expensive younger staff critics trained by McCarthy—Justin Chang and Peter Debruge—McCarthy and Rooney’s departure marks a sad, sad day. (UPDATE: Monday afternoon, @ebertchicago tweets: Variety fires Todd McCarthy and I cancel my subscription. He was my reason to read the paper. @askdebruge responds: We’ll have to earn you back.) It is indeed the end of an era.
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Post by Lauryn on Mar 8, 2010 19:46:33 GMT -5
Thompson did see the writing on the wall, didn't she?
You have to wonder, with such a clear signal that the trade is floundering, if the longstanding arrangement by studios to give Variety first run reviews / access to earliest screenings will stand with Chang and DeBruge and a gaggle of voiceless stringers. It's not as if that process hadn't already been eroding. Who'll be first in line to read their reviews then?
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Post by Ace on Mar 9, 2010 17:55:26 GMT -5
Summit and their PG-13 obsession (though it makes more sense for a RPatz film than say a Polanski one! Poor Allen Coulter though from The Sopranos and Rome to PG-13 land) www.movieline.com/2010/03/how-did-robert-pattinsons-new-film-avoid-an-r-rating-the-director-explains.php Passionate sex. Cigarette smoking. Gun violence. Fistfights. Frank dialogue. Adult themes. F-bombs. The “twist” ending (don’t worry, no big spoilers here). Robert Pattinson’s new film Remember Me plays out with all the salty, sultry vigor of the New York summer in which it’s set. Yet somehow, director Allen Coulter and distributor Summit Entertainment trimmed and tucked enough of that vigor to avoid the R-rating that would keep the film from its Pattinson-rabid teenage fan base. It was a job that likely meant the difference between a $25 million and a $50 million opening or maybe even more — not to mention one that, as Coulter told Movieline recently, he almost refused to do. [Minor content spoilers do follow below] “When I was informed that the project was PG-13, my first reaction was, ‘Well, sayonara!’”, Coulter explained during the film’s press junket last month in New York. “I virtually quit at that point. I didn’t know that until very late in the game. So my first reaction was, ‘Forget it.’ Then I was talked off the ledge.” “But ultimately he wound up making a unique film,” said Will Fetters, the young screenwriter for whom Remember Me marks a feature debut. “It’s an R-script. It’s an adult-themed story that can be experienced by young people. There’s nothing gratuitous. Allen said this before, but hopefully it’s some of these young people’s first experience with a ‘adult’ film. The ending makes it unique, but what I think is getting lost is that ultimately Allen crafted a film — by getting in just under the line — that a broader audience can and will experience. I think that’s one of the elements that makes us more unique than if we had just gone for an ‘R.’” Nevertheless, the MPAA ratings board required some cuts. “For me,” Coulter said, “that was very painful because one of the first things I said from the very beginning was that I wanted to make this true-to-life. And people in New York talk a certain way. Cops talk a certain way. I didn’t want to have to done it down so much that it was just *beep* frankly. So it was a little bit of a process. I can’t really know what their reasoning was, but curiously we had more trouble with the sex, which struck me as odd, because it’s not at all graphic.” “Well, it was intense,” Fetters said. “Intense” is a good word for it: Two scenes, one pulled out of the Fatal Attraction playbook of thrashing and groping in an apartment corridor, and the other just your standard 10 or 12 seconds of gorgeous celebrities in bed. Emilie de Ravin — who plays Ally, the girlfriend of Pattinson’s brooding loner Tyler — is filmed mostly from the neck up, but in various other shots she’s not wearing a top. Scandalous! “Yeah, that was tough,” Coulter continued. “They found the intensity of that too much. The curious note that I got was, ‘Too much story.’ Which strikes me as mind-boggling, because you’d think the opposite of that is to make it perfunctory and facile. Which would be exactly what you didn’t want to do with a scene of sexuality — instead of making it deep and meaningful and something to be admired. So that was tough.” "The sexual content — albeit in my opinion tame — is emotionally driven, and it’s about the connection between two people." Then there are the fights — a big, fairly realistic-looking street brawl followed by more corridor intimacy, but, like, with fists. “With regard to the violence,” Coulter said, “We had to tone it down a little bit. I would say it’s a gritty PG-13, though. It just skated under the wire. And hats off to them for allowing us to be as gritty as we were; it may be because it was never easy or meant to be cool. All the violence is very real and at the same time has consequences. The sexual content — albeit in my opinion tame — is emotionally driven, and it’s about the connection between two people.” Finally, Tyler smokes. A lot. But it might as well be an anti-tobacco commercial in parts, as Coulter agreed. “As far as smoking is concerned, everybody gives him a hard time about it,” he said. “And eventually he says, ‘This is the last one, I swear.’ And you kind of feel like at that moment in the film, ‘You know, he means it. He’ll stop. Ally will rag on him until he stops.’ So it was just on the thin edge of what was allowable. But I hope the reason was because of the sincerity of our purpose.” Well, totally — there’s nothing insincere about trying for a number-one opening.
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Post by Ace on Mar 11, 2010 1:54:01 GMT -5
The reviews on this film so far have been wildly mixed to say the least (I've skimmed the script and expected that) - but in almost all cases - love it, loathe it, think it ho-hum - Pierce has been getting great reviews for his supporting role which is quite gratifying. The following review is by Ebert - beware of references to spoilers which though he doesn't come right out and give away are like an elephant in the room and very hard to avoid when critiquing this film. Small critique of Pierce bolded. rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100310/REVIEWS/100319993"Remember Me" tells a sweet enough love story, and tries to invest it with profound meaning by linking it to a coincidence. It doesn't work that way. People meet, maybe they fall in love, maybe they don't, maybe they're happy, maybe they're sad. That's life. If, let us say, a refrigerator falls out of a window and squishes one of them, that's life, too, but it's not a story many people want to see. We stand there looking at the blood seeping out from under the Kelvinator and ask with Peggy Lee, is that all there is? You can't exactly say the movie cheats. It brings the refrigerator onscreen in the first scene. It ties the action to a key date in Kelvinator history, one everybody knows even if that's all they know about refrigerators. But come on. This isn't the plot for a love story, it's the plot for a Greek tragedy. It may be true, as King Lear tells us, that as flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods. But we don't want to think ourselves as flies, or see fly love stories. Bring on the eagles. The fact is, "Remember Me" is a well-made movie. I cared about the characters. I felt for them. Liberate them from the plot's destiny, which is an anvil around their necks, and you might have something. The film opens on a New York subway platform. A young girl witnesses the senseless murder of her mother. We meet her again as a young woman. She is Ally Craig (Emilie de Ravin, from "Lost"), the daughter of a police sergeant (Chris Cooper). She's in college. Having lost his wife, he is intensely protective of her. We meet a feckless young man named Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson). He slouches about trying to look like a dissipated Robert Pattinson. Drinks too much, smokes too much, has the official four-day stubble on his face, hair carefully messed up, bad attitude. He lives in a pigpen of an apartment with a roommate named Aidan (Tate Ellington), who might have been played by Oscar Levant back in the days when such roommates were obnoxious, OK, but bearable. Tyler gets drunk one night, is thrown out of a club, gets in a fight, the cops are called, and when it's almost all over, he shoves one of the cops -- Sgt. Craig, of course. Young drunks: It is extremely unwise to shove the cop who is about to let you off with a warning. Tyler is thrown in the slammer. Not long after in school, the snaky Aidan tells Tyler that their pretty classmate Ally is the daughter of that very cop. He dares Tyler to ask her out and then dump her in revenge. Aidan is a jerk, but logically Tyler is, too, because this set-up is morally reprehensible. However, to the surprise of no one in the audience, Tyler falls for Amy and neglects to break up with her. Their courtship is a sensitive, well-acted progression through stages of mutual trust and Tyler's gradual rediscovery of his own real feelings. There's an intriguing subplot. Tyler's parents are divorced. His father is the immensely wealthy Charles Hawkins (Pierce Brosnan), whose office looks larger than small airplane terminals. Diane, his mother (Lena Olin), has remarried. Tyler's beloved kid sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins) lives with her. Only with Caroline can Tyler relax and drop the sullen facade, showing warmth and love. Until he meets Ally -- and then there are two safe harbors, and his rebirth begins. Pierce Brosnan plays a key role in the process. He has only a few significant scenes in the movie, but plays them so well that he convincingly takes a three-step character development and makes it into an emotional evolution. Meanwhile, Ally and Tyler encounter fierce opposition to their relationship from her dad, who can't be blamed because as a cop, he saw Tyler at his drunken worst. These people and their situation grow more involving as the movie moves along. Then there's a perfect storm of coincidences to supply the closing scenes. That's what I object to. If we invest in a film's characters, what happens to them should be intrinsically important to us. We don't require emotional reinforcement to be brought in from outside. The movie tries to borrow profound meaning, but succeeds only in upstaging itself so overwhelmingly that its characters become irrelevant. I'm guessing the message is: Parents, when you have a rebel child who hates you, someday you will learn what a good person that child really was. It's the dream of every tormented adolescent. Many of them become parents themselves and get their turn at being resented. Such is life.
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Post by Ace on Mar 11, 2010 16:30:17 GMT -5
www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/03/exclusive-interview-introducing-ruby-jerins-robert-pattinsons-little-sisterEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Introducing Ruby JerinsPosted on Mar 11, 2010 If your co-stars are Pierce Brosnan and Robert Pattinson, it would be easy to get overshadowed. However, 11-year old Ruby Jerins managed to hold her own in the upcoming drama Remember Me, even stealing a few scenes. The talented Jerins spoke to RadarOnline.com between a busy school day and a night filled with homework. While she may not have been familiar with all of her co-stars' work before signing on for the film (she watched New Moon with her dad after filming wrapped on Remember Me), she quickly got to know her hunky onscreen brother and gave him two thumbs up. "Rob’s great! He’s really just a normal guy...it was really fun for him to be my older brother. I’ve always wanted to have an older brother. He’s very goofy! He’s fun to hang out with," Jerins said adding with a laugh, "He’s unpretentious." The film- which has a surprise twist- immediately caught Jerins' attention. "I’d only read a few pages [of the script] and I fell in love with it. I finished it in one night. It was intense but it moved me and I loved it so much." In the film, Jerins plays the precocious dreamer (and budding artist) Caroline Hawkins. Adding a layer of complication, the sweet Caroline- who also serves as Pattinson's character Tyler Hawkins' confidante- has to deal with a distracted, workaholic father (Brosnan), a broken family ripped by tragedy, as well as a gaggle of mean classmates. One jarring scene in which Caroline finds herself the victim of a cruel prank at a sleepover tested Jerins' abilities and inevitably highlighted her maturity as an actress. "I didn’t actually have lines [for the scene]. Allen [Coulter, director] just let me go with it," she explained. There’s a lot we don’t have in common but I found it easy to connect with her...to get me into the scene I just felt for Caroline and her worries." Overall, the experience was one massive highlight for the young actress. "It was so fun and everybody was nice to me." One particular moment that sticks out in her mind was one in which the smooth Brosnan improvised due to a sudden interruption. "During shooting one of the scenes towards the end, all of a sudden from out of nowhere the phone rang and without breaking character Pierce just walked up and answered it!" she giggled. Remember Me hits theaters on March 12.
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Post by Ace on Mar 11, 2010 19:15:17 GMT -5
Entire article is a SPOILER (but the movie's end has been leaked all over the net and frankly I think it's good to know what you'll get going in to it) www.newsweek.com/id/234827NEWSWEEK: Does ‘Remember Me’ Exploit a National Tragedy? The new Robert Pattinson movie has an unexpected plot twist. Is it exploitative, or historically important? By Ramin Setoodeh | Newsweek Web Exclusive Mar 11, 2010 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." What it doesn't tell you: the moments this movie is living in is the summer of 2001, and September 11 figures prominently in the final scenes. The end is so controversial, a number of blogs—from New York Magazineto Gawker to even Perez Hilton—gave every detail of it away. This isn't a story for the faint of heart. A junior-high-school-aged girl at my screening left the room weeping. Adults had tears in their eyes. The movie is poised to be one of the biggest tear-jerkers to come out of Hollywood since Titanic. The question: does Remember Me earn its tears, or exploit September 11 for a cheap cry? If you haven't read about the film online, you'll probably go to the movie (with a tween or two in tow) expecting a sweet romance. And that you'll get, for most of the film. There's the prerequisite cheesy first-date dialogue at an Indian restaurant, and the scene where de Ravin gets so drunk at a college frat party, Pattinson holds her head back while she throws up. None of this prepares you for what ultimately happens, though a violent act in the first scene serves as eerie foreshadowing. When the Twin Towers are hit—we never see an airplane crash, just the debris—it's a complete shock that will leave you sad and stunned for days. But if you think about it, wasn't that the way we all felt after September 11? The attack was completely unexpected, just like the conclusion of this movie. Other films about September 11 (World Trade Center, United 93) have presented their grim subject matter from the very start, in every TV ad and theatrical trailer. Remember Me is targeted to a different demographic: teenage girls, many of whom were very young in 2001. For them, September 11 is probably a distant memory or maybe even just a lesson in a history book, especially for kids who didn't live in New York or Washington. Given that measure, this movie accurately depicts the horror, danger, grief, rage, meaninglessness, and brutality of that day. It actually honors history, albeit in a strange and unsettling way. Until now, most of the art to come out of September 11 has been targeted to adults. A lot of it has tried to give us "closure," to explain what happened to us because of the attacks. A reoccurring theme—from Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to Don DeLillo's Falling Man—is the difficult road to healing. If there's a literary equivalent to Remember Me, it's Claire Messud's 2006 novel The Emperor’s Children, another story about how young, spoiled, 20-somethings are affected by the suddenness of September 11, which ends the novel. But in that case, the introduction of September 11 felt over the top, like an escape from resolution rather than a natural ending point. It just didn't feel real. That's not the case with Remember Me, which makes us grieve all over again. It shows us that no matter how horrible that day was, it should never be erased. In the immediate aftermath, it was wiped from the skyline of Spider-Manand the coffee talk on Friends. Now we have the biggest star in the tween world building a memorial dedicated to September 11. When it's taught in classrooms, September 11 is presented as a historical atrocity. The key word: historical. For those who weren't old enough to pick up The New York Times in the days that followed (like the screenplay writer of the movie, who found his inspiration in the paper's mini-obituaries of the victims of that day), the faces of the men and women who perished are simply relics from the past. Remember Me exposes a new generation to what happened in American nearly—can you believe it?—a decade ago. The title isn't a request. It's a command.
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Post by Ace on Mar 11, 2010 23:45:38 GMT -5
www.newsok.com/remember-me-star-robert-pattinson-wont-forget-what-twilight-saga-has-created-for-him/article/3445650?custom_click=pod_ lead_movies#ixzz0hvETL2ch 'Remember Me’ star Robert Pattinson won’t forget what ‘Twilight saga’ has created for him BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK — Robert Pattinson is understandably a little fidgety and distracted these days. Everywhere he goes, it seems, he’s followed by lightninglike flashes and shutter-clicking hordes of paparazzi. When word gets out that he’s in town — and, somehow, it always does — screeching gaggles of young female fans gather nearby and swoon over his every move. "I knew when Rob was going to the bathroom accompanied by about 14 guards that we had real security issues." -- Allen Coulter So it is that the hunky, 23-year-old British star of the hot teen vampire films "Twilight” and "New Moon” seems a bit preoccupied as he is ushered into a midtown hotel suite to discuss his new movie, "Remember Me,” during a recent press event hosted by Summit Entertainment. Flanked by a team of stern, clock-watching publicists who admonish everyone around, "No pictures; no autographs,” Pattinson looks slightly sheepish as he’s handed a bottle of Fiji water and settles into a chair. His hair tousled and his face fashionably stubbled, he’s decked out in gray shirt, gray wind-breaker jacket and rumpled dark jeans, appearing every bit the successor of moody-broody heartthrobs in the James Dean-Johnny Depp lineage. "Remember Me,” a contemporary romantic drama about two young lovers struggling to deal with family relationships damaged by untimely deaths, was shot on location around New York City, and Pattinson admits through a series of rueful laughs that his red-hot celebrity made the production a chaotic ordeal. Everywhere they filmed, groupies and paparazzi crowded in and created turmoil. "It’s weird,” Pattinson said. "I did this film, and I hardly knew anyone on the crew because I couldn’t get out of my trailer, especially the first month. I mean, I didn’t know anyone on the set. It was really odd. "But at the same time, it’s really a quite nice lesson in discipline because you literally have to do it,” he said. "You can’t say, ‘I’m not performing until all these people go away.’ It was way more intense than any of the ‘Twilight’ films even.” Director Allen Coulter said he knew going in that Pattinson’s feverish celebrity would require extra layers of security around the filming. "I knew when Rob was going to the bathroom accompanied by about 14 guards that we had real security issues,” Coulter said. "I mean, we expected something, but not what we got. Joe Reidy, a masterful assistant director who’s been with DiCaprio working with Scorsese and others, even he was staggered by the intensity of it. It was tough. "The first few days in particular, when we had to get our footing, Rob and the others managed to perform intimate scenes when we had 30 to 50 guys on the sidelines with cameras, that we were barely able to control, not to mention 700 to 1,000 young girls all vibrating. It was not easy for the cast to act, and it was not easy for us to do our jobs.” Despite rigorous security efforts and lots of burly production assistants to keep crowds at bay, "you simply couldn’t defeat it,” the director said. "They (groupies) had inroads and ways of finding out where we were going to shoot. And we’d show up somewhere at 5 a.m., and there would be girls standing there waiting for us so they could see Rob walk from his trailer to the set. They’d see him for maybe 15 seconds. They’d wait all day for that.” Still, Pattinson, who went from a supporting role in two "Harry Potter” movies to international stardom as sexy vampire Edward Cullen in the first two films of "The Twilight Saga” series, said he’s learning to deal with the daunting distractions of fame. "It really is just about blanking it out,” he said. "I mean, 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 one moment where one of the security guys saw me getting more and more and more angry with the paparazzi guys, and he said to me, ‘Imagine like going up and trying to hit one of them and missing, right there in front of 40 cameras.’ And that was enough to break my rage. It didn’t really bother me after that.” The noisy commotion of celebrity, however, did detract from his performance, Pattinson admitted. "It makes you a little more self-conscious. I mean ... yeah. You can’t really experiment with things. You can’t really do silly things to get yourself comfortable. So it did in a way detract. But at the same time, there is a certain quality to Tyler (his character) that’s a little bit clenched, that’s about suppressing his emotions, so maybe it helped.” Pattinson said he received a valuable lesson in handling the demands of celebrity with grace from co-star Pierce Brosnan, who plays his emotionally withholding, business tycoon father in the film.
"Pierce did one thing the first night I went out to dinner with him before we started shooting,” Pattinson said. "We were in this place, a sort of old-fashioned French restaurant, and all these sort of banker-looking guys were there. They didn’t recognize me, but they obviously recognized him, he was probably like their idol, and Pierce said he noticed these people looking over.
"And I’m sitting there getting more and more self-conscious and ready to leave. And he goes over and introduces himself to everyone at the table. And at first I thought, ‘You are completely insane.’ But it worked so well. I mean, he talked to them for about a minute. And people did not look around afterwards, and you can tell that they’re going to go home and say, ‘Yeah, he’s such a nice guy.’
"And after that there was nothing weird about us being in the restaurant,” Pattinson said. "You’re no longer a kind of freak. But, of course, he’s got enormous confidence, so he can do that. If I did that, it would probably look like I was trying to start a fight or something.” Finally, Pattinson said he is trying to maintain a calm sanity about his dizzying fame and to be aware that it could go away as quickly as it came. "I think it’s all really simple,” he said thoughtfully as handlers swooped in to wrap up the questioning. "I mean, you look at how people are judged in the public arena, and I think the majority of people kind of get beaten by it, the people who are seen all the time. I mean, the less you’re seen then you’ll be all right. As long as you keep attempting to make quality films, then eventually your name stands for something other than meaningless celebrity. It’s a kind of difficult battle, but you have to make the work mean more than your celebrity. I think Johnny Depp has done that, and that’s what I’d like to do.”
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Post by Ace on Mar 12, 2010 17:34:51 GMT -5
www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_17786.html[Excerpt] 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.
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Post by Ace on Mar 13, 2010 18:38:21 GMT -5
Meanwhile, competing for younger audiences with less on the line are “Remember Me” and “She’s Out of My League.” Shot for $16 million and opening in 2,212 theaters, Summit officials are hoping for a domestic debut of somewhere between $8 million and $10 million for the Pattinson film, a PG-13-rated, romance-themed family drama. Clearly, they hope Pattinson is a draw. “Like ‘Twilight,’ we’re targeting young girls and older females,” said Richie Fay, president of domestic theatrical distribution for Summit. “We view this as a date movie. Hopefully, we’ll get good word-of-mouth on Friday that will continue to generate buzz through the weekend.” Added one rival-studio distribution official, noting the 80 percent female audience skew of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”: “I don’t think you’ll get a whiff of a male anywhere near that film.” www.thewrap.com/article/box-office-preview-15184?page=2================================================ Pretty much on target with a reported $3.5-3.6m Friday
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