The Legacy of Remember Me: Part One

In Jessegirl's latest wonderful article takes a very interesting and thoughtful look at what the Remember Me Legacy might be in the future.

-by jessegirl- October 24, 2010

Gazing into a crystal ball, what will Remember Me’s legacy be?
Will the Oscars, Baftas, SAGs, Golden Globes look favourably in its direction?
Will it be included in future “Best Film” lists?
Will it become a classic? Or perhaps a cult classic? A sleeper?
Could it become a best-loved film?
Could it appear on film courses in universities, or even find a niche in high school history classes? What criteria do we use to measure legacy?




Hmm. I’m sure some people reading this will think these are ridiculous questions. Given the way the industry and media operate perhaps many think specifically my second query deserves only a raised eyebrow and a dismissive snort. Knowing the film as I do, I would never have predicted either poor critical reception or fair to middling box office, certainly not both together. But that combination was part of what propelled me into defending the film. What does that say about the accuracy of my crystal ball?

It is early days to speak of legacy, I know. It’s been only about 6 months since Remember Me’s U.S. theatrical premiere. However, with films, predictions are rampant. People have no compunction to say “generating Oscar buzz” about other films, either before general release (Oprah, about Precious at TIFF), or after a lucrative premiere (The Social Network).



Oscars and Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
This type of Oscar buzz is laden with self-fulfilling prophecy. It manipulates the public into considering certain films Oscar contenders just as they’re leaving the gate, only because the media has presented them this way. (I’m not judging the worth of the films I mention, but am observing a pattern.) The public gets used to hearing a particular film’s title together with the word Oscar and this word association sticks in their minds. People are primed to buy into this idea; the buzz builds because from the first time people hear of the film it has been given this classy cachet, whether deserved or not. Once it takes hold, this initial hype feeds on itself. People think there must be something of value in the film. If the film really isn’t that great, it becomes a situation of The Emperor’s New Clothes. Only independent and rebellious viewers won’t be swept up in this almost mindless concurrence.

But a self-fulfilling prophecy is a machine in motion, and inertia carries it forward, not insight, excellence or perspective. And this machine can effectively go in the other direction and shut down a film’s future too. The words which early “critical” reviews associated with Remember Me were designed to cut it off at the knees (i.e. shameful, exploitative, manipulative, tacked-on ending, maudlin and so on).

And, in my opinion, the only reason Remember Me has not had Oscar buzz surrounding it is because of the biased, unprofessional behaviour of critics. Their rash, opinionated yet obtuse attitudes created an avalanche of misconception. And their negative words adhered to the film, tainting it. Let’s face it, Remember Me’s true audiences would be drawn from outside the Twilight universe, a broad demographic that would have to be won over another way. In any case, believing makes it so. If you hear these derogatory words often enough, you would be likely to give the film a pass rather than a chance. It all comes down to belief, to faith in the arbiters of opinions.



Critical Acclaim
Now some staunch supporters of Remember Me have made predictions that in future, when Remember Me’s excellence is finally recognized, in some gloriously imagined future, the critics will eat their words. Others think this is a pointless fantasy. I know that if this back-pedalling ever comes from the critics, it will not be in time to make a difference to the up-coming awards season. Critics are not known for eating humble pie; after all, what faith would people have in a critic who makes a marked about-face?

Other supporters think the die is cast, critical reception being—er—critical to award nominations. So when I speak of Remember Me’s legacy, I go far beyond the awards. I have, of course, advocated persistently on behalf of Remember Me — to the annoyance of some — have attempted to counter the juggernaut of negativity and to generate Oscar buzz myself at the grass-roots level [See my article Oscars and Remember Me.]



But that’s a rusty engine to start if it’s been sabotaged from the beginning
and my puny efforts cannot take the sugar out of the tank, so to speak. Who the heck am I? To use another metaphor, battling this many-headed Hydra of established critical influences takes a superhero and I’m not that. I would leave behind all talk of awards except that other viewers who loved this film are vocally enthusiastic about its award-worthy nature. I may be a passionate advocate but I am not the only voice, far from it, I’m only one of so many viewers. The following are the tip of the iceberg:

-‘It has to win some kind of award.’ [Nancy]
-‘ITA...this movie needs to win awards! The quality of this movie is just fantastic!...And the entire cast deserves serious accolades...It is definitely award-worthy!’ [GwenCooper426]
-‘this is Oscar worthy...’ [Bonemama]
-‘the movie is a masterpiece...’ [alliecullen]


Best Film Lists
Everyone knows that not all Academy Award winners withstand the test of time, whereas some films/directors/actors which have never won awards are now on either best-loved or best film lists. The awards have glaring omissions (Hitchcock stands out). Films not nominated for a single Oscar which are now considered classics are Bringing Up Baby (1939), Fail Safe (1964), His Girl Friday (1940), and The Searchers (1956). Films not nominated for Best Picture include: Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Some Like it Hot. Actors never nominated include: Marilyn Monroe, Maureen O’Hara, Dirk Bogarde, Martin Sheen and Donald Sutherland (whose snub for Ordinary People was stunning).
One could go on in this vein and Filmsite.org has.



“Best” lists vary and are themselves subjective and skewed by the attitudes of the year in which they are made, as well as the gender of their creators. These days cynicism wins over compassion, clever crafting wins over reverence, for example. ‘Gritty’ and ‘slick’ tenor win over emotion, and the degrogatory ‘maudlin’ is attached to anything attempting to deliver tender feeling. These are general 2010 biases.

Classics
But what the lists give us is some perspective and what critics pan now might be considered a classic in time. Remember Me’s audiences have voiced this also, repeatedly.

-‘It will still be relevant in a year, 5 years, and in 10 years.’ [GwenCooper426]
-‘I’m sure in some years from now it will be one of those movies that when you say you haven’t seen it people look at you in wonder/surprise and tell you “you can’t be serious, you HAVE to see this movie!”’ [Vafla89]
-‘If ever there was a film that requires perspective, it’s RM...Some things require a second viewing before you ‘get it’...I have a feeling this film is going to be talked about a LOT over the years...Right now we’re dealing with a ‘knee jerk’ reaction.’ [Nikola6]
-‘This is in a class on its own, a class beyond excellence, and certainly beyond what the usual movie fare is.” [Solas]
-‘This film will be a classic!...They don’t make them like this anymore.’ [Valerie]
-‘This movie is a classic. People just don’t realize it yet.’ [Jennifer L]
-‘This is going to be one of those films that in 10 years will be looked back upon by critics as one of the best ‘unusual’ films of the decade –it will make many lists of outstanding films that were underappreciated in their time but gained respect and stature as the years go on and more and more viewers discover it.’ [Rubydynasty]

I agree with this. Remember Me will, at some point, not only be vindicated, but will be considered a genuine Classic, -capital ‘C’.



Money
The Box Office for Remember Me is actually quite respectable, considering its genre. It made approxomintley $58M worldwide (its foreign BO was great). This more than delivered profit, as its budget was a mere $16M. Some big budget films competing with it, like Green Zone haven’t made back their budgets. I won’t make comparisons with other films here as it is complicated to find apples-to-apples candidates.

DVD domestic sales are currently $10.3M at least (not included are Walmart figures which are not released, and international sales). Rental figures are strong as well.

Audience polls
Box Office Mojo’s readers’ poll gave Remember Me 81% [67.6% (A) & 12.9% (B)].
Compare with: Green Zone 60.5%; Dear John at 51.1%; Alice in Wonderland 69.8%). Only Oscar contenders/winners fared as good as or better than Remember Me: Blind Side 87.6%; Hurt Locker 81.7%; Precious 82%; Avatar 88.1%).
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Poll: Remember Me = 71% liked it.
IMDb : a respectable 7 out of 10 ranking for Remember Me.
Amazon (US and UK) audience DVD reviews: average 4.5 out of 5 stars.

There’s more and one could go into more detail comparing various films on these scales but in general Remember Me has found great audience approval. These measurements have their own biases and problems but they are used for all films.



Real Legacy
All of the factors I’ve mentioned tell only part of the story. Legacy is more. Legacy is “that which remains”. When the dust settles, what will be the core, the kernel, the essence of Remember Me’s legacy? Remember Me is a film about legacy: Ally’s Mom’s legacy; Michael’s legacy; Tyler’s legacy; and that of 9/11. Thematically, it is suffused with legacy.

Immediate Impact
The ‘prologue’ grabs you right from the beginning.
The first scene—Tyler’s apartment—eases you into the narrative skilfully.
The climax tears you forcefully away.
The epilogue—the requiem montage—begins the next journey.
So, from beginning to end you are engaged.

The prologue scene, the murder of Ally’s mother, grabs you immediately. Yes, it’s the unexpected violence, but it has been presented skilfully. We see the relationship between mother and daughter right away and then know the husband’s pain as the scene closes. A combination of fine acting, cinematography, music, and craftsmanship has done its work. We’re there.

This is followed by the first scene, the introduction to Tyler’s life, ’10 years later’. After the violence and sadness of the prologue has caught our attention, this scene subtly eases us into the main story. The phone is ringing quietly and the music is gentle as we travel through the apartment to observe Tyler’s form partially visible on the fire escape.



The cinematography here is masterful, both in concept and execution. We inhabit Tyler’s domicile right away, move through it to meet him as he enters from the other side. This scene is genius.



Tyler adjusts his ears to verify the sound of the phone, his face and form evident to us in increments. Then he gingerly repositions cigarette and beer bottle.



All this care has aroused our curiosity even before he stumbles, then slowly, carefully, leans across the bed to reach for the phone yet leave the girl in the bed undisturbed.



He answers with a soft voice and before we know it we see him walking up the hill to meet his family at the grave site. By the time family dynamics are played out in the sweets shop we are trapped in the Hawkins’ gossamer net, drawn irrevocably into Tyler’s life.

The journey from there to his death keeps our emotions so engaged that we soon feel related to these characters. Then the tether snaps, breaking the connection; it is taken away. After allowing us in, it destroys. And so we come to the epilogue, the end. We do not want to let go but we have no choice since we have been torn away. It is shocking.

After that we have to deal with being torn away. And so, in the process of ‘dealing’, a number of things happen—some all at once and some linger to be dealt with later—things which, taken together, are rare when responding to a film.

In Part Two, I will show how we deal, and in the process, try to articulate what I feel to be Remember Me’s legacy.
I will talk about how significant legacies find:
A Place in the Mind.
A Place in the Heart.
A Place in the Memory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Sources for comments:
robsessedpattinson.com Various RM spoiler posts (March and April).
IMDb Robert Pattinson message board: Some Love for Remember Me(Oct. 15).

“Reacting to Remember Me: an Interview with Screenwriter Will Fetters”, by Brad Brevet. March 16, 2010. Ropes of Silicon.com
Sources for figures:

IMDb.com
Rotten Tomoatoes.com
Amazon.com
Box Office Mojo.com

Filmsite.org