Review: Remember Me - A Love Letter to Kristen Stewart

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This film has been trashed for being sentimental, playing on 9-11, Pattinson's performance, the fact it didn't make blockbuster money, but hey, neither did Orson Welles The Immortal Story, a beautiful film that resonates strongly with Remember Me, for me at least.

The Immortal Story is a 55 minute film made for TV still not out in the US on DVD the last time I looked. It plays on an old folk tale in seaport cities of a sailor who is picked up as he goes to shore by a beautiful woman in a limo and taken to her beautiful abode for a night of passionate love. A fairy tale, eh? Starring the always beautiful and perfect Jeanne Moreau and Orson  himself as the wealthy man who promotes the becoming true for a sailor coming to port. It is lovely, romantic, and well, Orson Welles made it so what else can one expect. It is sentimental. It was not made for the box office. It was not made to get an award or Oscar. It was just made for love. And that is Orson.

Remember Me is that kind of film. Just made for love. And Rob Pattinson has made it for Kristen Stewart. It is a love letter to her. The other love letter I remember is that of Otto Preminger for Jean Seberg, although he was a kiss and slap kind of guy. Preminger searched all over for an unknown for his Shaw's Saint Joan (1957) film and after a running field of 18,000 chose the 17 year old Seberg and it flopped at the BO. Afterwards he made Bonjour Tristesse in 1957, a hot book by Francoise Sagan, the enfant terrible of New 

Wave France and the Riviera.This one was the love letter. Seberg flopped in that one too but now used copies on Amazon sell for 18.00 minimum (so much for the fucking BO), but was seen by the great Godard and cast in Breathless 1959. It was Godard's valentine to the lovely Seberg. (He was another kind of kiss and slap guy.) She was the first to stare at the camera with a blank look. Just pure appearance. Breathless also was made for love.


Interview with Jenny Lumet Details March 2010

Coulter suggested I do some rewrite work on Remember Me (for the record, there is only one credited writer, Will Fetters), the first American release in which Rob will portray a mortal, nonmagical, carbon-based life form of the earthly realm—..... As Rob scribbles away on the script's pages, it's clear he is starting his own revision process.


Pattinson has said that this is the first script he's had any control over. Towards the end of shooting he jumped on as a producer of RM to make sure it would be the film it was filmed to be. 


And I would say this is the first film he appears as intelligent, confident, and able to hold his own with Pierce Brosnan who has been great since 007 and the always perfect Chris Cooper who has never made a bad decision in choosing a film nor ever given a poor or stupidly directed performance.


Pattinson has some remarkable moments in this film. He is wonderful to watch and his character has been lifted out of prep school boys in the 50's. There were many like Tyler. Wealthy, quick witted, intelligent, well read, sexy, and desiring a meaningful creative life. You never see these beautiful young men anymore. But women of a certain age will recognize his type if they knew any of them.


And that beautiful drag gesture Pattinson makes putting out the cigarette in the crystal vase in the lobby of his father's office. Just perfect. Justin Timberlake will play Sean Parker with drag gestures in Social Network.


Actually Tyler is simply finding himself, especially after suffering from his brother's suicide. The fact that this death has hurt him so much indicates the kind of person he is. It's pretty clear that he is living the kind of life of someone who is going to end up a writer. I think the same of Meyer's Bella. Observant, perceptive, thoughtful, sensitive, and wondering. And of course he's conflicted.


Why is it a love letter? He has assumed a more powerful role in producing this film. He is making a statement for her, that he is willing to grow up and be someone for her. Kristen is a serious actress, chooses her parts carefully, and gives as excellent a performance as she is capable of giving. Pattinson's past performances have been spotty. Here's a rundown on my Twilight blog. With lovely pics. To be fair he has had shitty directors, and he has not chosen well, so he was complicit in this. And he makes the same mistake by accepting WFE  with Francis Lawrence.


So why is Remember Me a love letter to Kristen Stewart? 

Whenever someone comes into your life and half of you says you’re nowhere near ready, but the other half says, make her yours forever. Tyler Hawkin's Journal

He clinches it with his scenes with Ruby Jerins. He is the perfect father. What girl wouldn't want to be with him and have children with him. He is  fun loving and natural with her.  Considerate and caring. He relates adult to adult with her (Transactional Analysis).


And his scenes with Ruby are what real parenting looks like. Not the pretense of concern ("floating signs") many children get.