Remember Me

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Remember Me's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Remember Me completed by The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 March 2010.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

ACCM review

This review of the movie Remember Me contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

On a New York subway station in 1991, eleven year old Allissa Craig (Caitlin Rudd) witnesses her mother shot down dead in front of her by two muggers. Ten years later, Ally (Emilie de Ravin) lives with her over protective father, Neil, (Chris Cooper) a New York police sergeant and both bear the scars of the traumatic events of the past.

Ally is a student in a class with Tyler Hawkins (Robert Pattinson) who is also a victim of tragic circumstances. Tyler’s older brother committed suicide on his 22nd birthday, following the break up of his family. His mother has a new partner and his father, Charles Hawkins (Pierce Brosnan), a successful lawyer, has disconnected from the family. Tyler, who shares a flat with roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington), loves and takes care of his younger sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins), Caroline is a very gifted artist, but has poor social skills, which makes her a victim of bullying.
One evening Tyler and Aidan get involved in a street fight and Tyler is arrested by Neil who beats him quite badly. In an effort to get even, Aidan dares Tyler to take Ally out on a date. Things don’t go according to plan however, as Tyler is not a vengeful person and actually falls in love with Ally. Tyler and Ally find that they are able to understand each other and help each other to heal. While their relationship grows, Ally’s relationship with her father deteriorates and Ally moves in with Tyler.

Things fall apart when Tyler admits to Neil how it all began, and then confesses the dare to Ally. Meanwhile Tyler is trying to repair relationships with his own father and is on the verge of doing so when again, tragic events lead to an unexpected ending.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Dysfunctional families, Murder, Suicide

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

• Ally and her mother are approached by two hoodlums, who threaten and intimidate them. They steal the mother’s handbag, and then shoot her dead.
• Tyler and Aidan intervene in a street fight where hoodlums are attacking people with bats.
• Tyler is arrested and beaten by Neil Craig, leaving him with a bloodied, bruised face and blood all over his t-shirt.
• Neil Craig hits Ally with enough force to make her fall to the floor.
• Tyler and his father have a very confronting verbal fight.
• Ally slaps Tyler across the face.
• Neil Craig attacks Tyler and almost strangles him.
  Caroline has her hair cut off at a party and this deeply upsets her.
• Tyler intimidates one of his sister’s bullies, shoving her desk. He also smashes a fire hydrant through a window, scaring all the children and the teacher in the class.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group are likely to be disturbed by the violent scenes described above.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• Caroline is picked on by bullies and has her hair cut off at a party.  This is not actually shown, but Caroline is clearly very distressed.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• Discussion about suicide. Tyler is very disturbed by his brother’s death as they were obviously quite close. Neil Craig brings the subject up also, describing how Michael killed himself by hanging.
• Ally is shown vomiting into a toilet after drinking too much.

Product placement

None of concern

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• talk about preferring to be “sodomised with a toothbrush”
• reference to “screwing her panties’
• Aidan talks about ‘bagging’ girls from every continent.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some partial nudity and a couple of passionate sex scenes.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Tyler smokes throughout the movie
• A lot of drinking of alcohol in various places, at home, in pubs, restaurants, etc.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Bullshit
• Shit
• Freakin'
• Arseholes
• Goddammit
• Bastards
• Fuck
• Christ
• Piss
• Arse

The movie's message

Remember Me is a gritty romantic drama which involves stories on various levels. The characters are quite complex, well developed and well portrayed. Due to the content of the movie, it is more suited to an adult audience, despite the presence of teenage drawcard Robert Pattinson.
The main messages from this movie are the ability of the human spirit to overcome tragedy and the importance of treasuring every day of one’s life.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• understanding
• empathy
• love
• forgiveness
• the importance of family

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children how to deal with loss and grief, and how to cope with losing a family member to suicide or murder. It would also be an opportunity to discuss difficult parent-child relationships.