Remember Me

It's a very good thing that I posted extra tanka poems earlier this week--so I've still published ten poems in ten days for NaPoWriMo.

Yesterday we celebrated Elizabeth's 18th birthday with a day of shopping and seeing Remember Me, starring one of my favorite actors, Pierce Brosnan, and one of her favorite actors, Robert Pattinson. The only thing that I didn't like about the movie was hearing two superb British actors speaking in broad New York City accents. Especially Pierce.

The story was incredibly sad--at the beginning, the middle, and the end. And the few times happiness tried to peek around the corner, something else heartbreaking happened. The end of the movie required two Kleenexes--both Elizabeth and I were crying by the end, even though we knew the ending ahead of time. In fact, I think knowing made it even more sad.

But the dynamics among the characters was mesmerizing--how people in pain learn to survive, to live and love, to be struck down again, and to live and love again anyway. Two young people with tragic pasts still manage to be idealists--to want what is right and good and true. And they still get struck down by further tragedy.

Yet it was not hard to watch--well, only at times was it hard to watch. The gentle unraveling of the scars each character carried was intriguing--I was never bored. And there were moments of joy and revelation dotted between the tragic and violent--just as there is in real life. The film was beautifully and powerfully acted--and every character was memorable. The screenplay was stunning and ever so poignant.

Remember Me is leaving the theaters in our area; in fact, it was only playing at two theaters in the entire Sam Diego area, and both were late night showings. By next week it will most likely be gone. But when it comes out on DVD, I highly recommend seeing Remember Me. But it's cathartic--a great movie if you want to (or need to) cry. Just make sure you have a box of Kleenex at your elbow; you're gonna need it.