Remember Me

Starring:  Robert Pattinson, Emilie De Raven, Pierce Brosnan
Drama, Rated PG 13 (2010)

A young man from a family (Pattinson) tormented by a suicide meets a young woman (De Raven) who herself deals daily with the loss of her mother. Tyler has a great relationship with his little sister but is extremely angry with his father's lack of participation in all of their lives.  Ally and Tyler click and are able to put their troubles aside when they are together.  Just when things seem to be taking  turn for the better something very unexpected and tragic occurs that can take it all away.

• I mainly watched this because I wanted to see Robert Pattinson play someone other then an angst ridden vampire.  In this he is an angsty mortal so perhaps it wasn't much of a stretch but at least in this his teeth are not pointy and his skin is not snow white.
• I was interested in the story as it unfolded but found that the pace was a little slow for me at times.
• Very well acted and a really great deep script overall.  I liked the way most of the main characters were very well developed.
• The ending was the best part.  I won't give it away but it starts with something so subtle that you don't quite get what is about to happen until it does.  As I sat there and watched my eyes widened, my jaw dropped open and I covered it with my hand. 

4 STARS

The Greatest

Starring:  Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Aaron Johnson
Drama, 2009 (Rated R)

Bennett Brewer (Johnson) is smart and young with his whole life ahead of him.  He looses his life in a tragic car accident.  As his family struggles to recover from this tragedy Rose (Mulligan) shows up on their door step pregnant with Bennett's baby.  Bennett's mother Grace (Sarandon) seems to be having the most difficult time accepting the loss of her son and has a very negative reaction to Rose's presence.  Can this fragmented family pull themselves together and welcome this new gift of life or will they totally buckle under the pain of grief and miss out on the very thing that should bring them together?

• My mom and I walked into blockbuster, took one look at this and agreed we wanted to see it even though we had never heard a thing about it.  I saw Carey Mulligan in An Education and could tell right away that she is one of those actresses who will likely rarely ever have a bad movie so I had a feeling it would be good.  Turns out, it was even better then I expected.
• Mulligan did a great job playing the role of Rose.  Smart, pretty, spunky.  She was likable from the very beginning and it actually made sense that Bennett admired her from afar and never got the courage to speak until the last day of school.
• This is a love story but I didn't really anticipate that it would be.  I love the way the story of Rose and Bennett evolves throughout the story line.  We can guess, but don't find out the nature of their relationship right away.  With a series of flashbacks we finally get the whole story by the end and it's not what you might think.  Great script.  Great storyline and concept.
• Sarandon and Brosnan of course were excellent.  There was a lot of emotion and drama and every actor delivered it well.
• There isn't anything I didn't love about this one.

5 STARS