Atom Egoyan has frustrated even his most diehard fans in
recent years with misfires like “Devil’s Knot,” “Chloe” and “The Captive.”
Seeing that he had a film playing both in Venice and at TIFF this year, and
that it starred two of cinema’s living legends in Christopher Plummer and
Martin Landau, fans like myself allowed for hope that this would be the
turnaround for the career trajectory of a filmmaker who once really mattered
with masterworks like “Exotica” and “The Sweet Hereafter.” “Remember” had its
North American premiere last night, in a crowded Roy Thomson Hall, with the Mayor of Toronto on hand to introduce it. As the film unfolded, I tried to read
the crowd response. Were they with it? Were they welcoming two of their native
sons (Plummer was born in Toronto, and introduced as the “Greatest Canadian
Actor of All Time”) back with open arms? Yes and no. It’s not the disaster that
the Venice pans made it out to be—Plummer is too committed to allow that—but it’s
a film that frustrates more than it satisfies.
Zev (Plummer) wakes up startled most times he wakes up. His
wife Ruth died a week ago, and he often wakes up calling for her. He has to be
reminded that she is gone, and that his dementia is deepening with every passing
day. As a doctor tells his son (Henry Czerny), when someone in Zev’s position
loses their spouse, their cognitive issues often decline rapidly. Zev is on the
edge of complete memory loss, unable to figure out where he is or what he’s
doing when he emerges from sleep.
And yet Zev has a mission. He made a promise to Ruth and to
his friend Max (Martin Landau) that he would enact vengeance for wrongs done to
him and his family seven decades ago in Auschwitz. Zev lost all of the people
he loved and cared about in that concentration camp, and Max has been working
with the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation to make sure justice is finally served,
before it no longer can be. The man who was the Block Commander in Zev and Max’s
unit moved to the United States decades ago, and changed his name to Rudy
Kolander. Max has found four men with that name. Zev will travel to each of
them, see if he recognizes the face of horror, and then kill someone surely
deserving of death.
So, Zev gets on a train, guided mostly by Max’s letter,
which reminds him every morning of his mission. Max has given him money, and
instructs him to buy a gun. Of course, because there’s no running time
otherwise, Max meets a few Rudy Kolanders who are not the man whom he seeks. It
starts with a cameo by the great Bruno Ganz as a man who served for the
Germans, but was stationed under Rommel in Africa. Here’s where “Remember”
starts to frustrate. Imagine the conversation these two men could have. This
Rudy claims to have had no knowledge of what was happening in the concentration
camps, although reveals that he believed Hitler was right about the Jews and
that they should have been in work camps. There should be room for thematic
development within a scene like this but writer Benjamin August rushes it,
moving to the next Rudy, hurtling towards his final twist, which is all he really cares about.
Before Zev finds his Rudy, he’ll encounter a horrendous
human being played by Dean Norris of “Breaking Bad” fame and make more than a
few mistakes along the way. There are times when “Remember” approaches black
comedy, but Egoyan doesn’t go far enough to confirm that direction. Throughout,
“Remember” feels like a film that’s tonally indecisive, which really becomes a
problem in the climax when it’s impossible to figure out exactly what we’re
supposed to take away from “Remember” thematically. There are some who believe
that the Holocaust is such a pure evil that we should never use it for
entertainment without serious dramatic intent. Those people will have many
reasons to hate “Remember.”
I never hated it, largely because Christopher Plummer
grounds the piece in a way that makes it easy to believe that this could have
been a total disaster without him (most of the supporting performances range
from serviceable to awful). Plummer doesn’t just deliver the scared, lost old
man turn that other actors would have. He plays Zev as a man who is constantly
given new purpose. He loses his drive to old age and dementia, but Max’s letter
gives it back to him and he’s focused. I think that’s the most successful theme
of “Remember” overall. That we may forget the atrocities that have befallen us
and others, but when we are reminded of them we should act with intense
morality.
I wish the rest of “Remember” rose to the level of Plummer’s
work within it. As is, even a performance this strong can’t salvage a script
that needed a rewrite and direction that feels inconsistent. Zev is a man lost
in this world, not sure where or who he is at any given moment. The movie about
him didn’t need to be lost too.
