Remember

Zev Guttman (Christopher Plummer) is a nursing home patient suffering from dementia. Following the death of his wife, fellow patient and Holocaust survivor Max Rosenbaum (Martin Landau) tasks Zev with avenging their families by tracking down and killing the SS officer responsible before he dies anonymously from old age. The sadistic officer, Otto Walisch, has been living under the name Rudy Kurlander, and Max has located four men with that name. With Max’s detailed instructions in hand, Zev procures a gun and begins a hunt that will take him across the U.S. and Canada in pursuit of long-awaited vengeance.

Scripted by newcomer Benjamin August and directed by veteran Atom Egoyan, Remember plays like a mashup of Memento and The Debt. If that sounds gimmicky, it should come as no surprise that the film definitely is, but it is also affecting and poignant.

Much of the film’s power is derived from Plummer’s masterful performance in a demanding role. In lesser hands, Zev would come across as a doddering caricature, but Plummer plays him as a man fiercely intent on preserving both his dignity and his resolve even if he isn’t always successful. The rest of the cast gives him plenty of help. Landau has the whole strong of mind/frail of body thing down pat, imbuing Max with cunning while he coughs and wheezes. Character actors Bruno Ganz and Jurgen Prochnow, under heavy makeup, are memorable in their brief roles as potential Rudy Kurlanders. The film also features a Dean Norris appearance as a bombastic lawman, something of a cliché at this point, but it works to fuel a pivotal scene.

Behind the camera, Egoyan furthers the film’s ambitions by never lowering the stakes. He expertly builds in tension and keeps the audience invested in Zev’s journey. The film’s twist ending is likely to infuriate some viewers, but even viewed in the worst light, it never reaches M. Night Shyamalan territory.

Besides, Remember’s biggest liability is evident well before that point. Despite the film’s attempts to gloss over it, the plot demands the viewer accept quite a bit of illogic. How else would one describe a visibly disoriented 90-year-old who makes little effort to adequately conceal a handgun progressing as far as Zev does? Or does one take this as the Canadian Egoyan’s deliberate jab at American gun culture?

Inanity aside, Remember is a potent little film that both presents and questions the idea that some things can never be forgiven. It also works to reminder viewers that, regardless of where they stand on that question, being north of 80 doesn’t mean that you can’t turn in a great performance.

7.5/10