Every time you watch a movie you expect to be left speechless or ‘paralyzed’ by superbly written story and remarkable performance. But what you don’t expect is to walk away from the screening in the middle of the movie because you start feeling that you aren’t really interested in the characters the movie is based on, and it’s so dull that you can’t believe it’s even happening. Unfortunately, the film REMEMBER directed by Atom Egoyan will leave you nothing but only desire not to remember seeing his new feature film at all. The feeling of huge disappointment as a big failure of capturing the darkest part of the 20th century will make you wonder, why such big actors like Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer agreed to be a part of it.…
Despite having a powerful story, once the film begins, we find Zev (Christopher Plummer), a survivor of Auschwitz, in a nursing home with weak memory. Seconds later we find out that his wife just passed away, but he does not remember anything about it. However, when he receives a letter from his fellow survivor, Max (Martin Landau), he takes a trip to find the man who is responsible for his trauma 70 years ago. And right after when the trip begins, you will most likely find nothing interesting that happens afterwards.
There are three major issues in Egoyan’s film: acting, storytelling and directing. And if to be honest, after seeing Remember, you don’t know which one is worse. First, when we’re introduced to Zev, an old man with very bad memory who forgets that his wife passes away. However, a moment later he recalls everything that had happened to him 70 years ago. Another intentionally funny scene is when Zev buys a gun. Before he purchases the gun, he asks for instructions on how to use it, but later on shoots a man right in his head. What is it, miracle or Egoyan just tries to show Christopher Plummer that he’s still capable of performing such roles?
Unfortunately, Remember is the movie that leaves you absolutely disappointed. In spite of having such a great and historically painful story, Egoyan remarkably fails to execute it. It simply must be avoided at any cost if you don’t want to walk away from the middle of screening the way I did….