Remember (2016)
Starring Christopher Plummer, Bruno Ganz, Jürgen Prochnow, Heinz Lieven, Henry Czerny, Dean Norris, and Martin Landau
Directed by Atom Egoyen
***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***
From the moment they met each other in the nursing home, Zev Guttman (Plummer) and Max Rosenbaum (Martin Landau) recognized each other -- decades ago they had been in the same Jewish concentration camp together. Having survived that ordeal, Zev and Max begin to formulate a plan to seek revenge on their block attendant Otto Wallisch who, after an extensive amount of research, they know emigrated to America under the alias Rudy Kurlander. Following the death of his wife, Zev sets out to find Kurlander and kill him. Unfortunately, Zev suffers from dementia and with his memory failing him, this proves to be a difficult task. As he travels across the country meeting with a variety of Rudy Kurlanders in an attempt to find the man who wreaked havoc on the Guttman and Rosenbaum families (as well as innumerable others in the camp), Zev desperately tries to remember a past that is quickly fading from his mind.
The key to Remember is Christopher Plummer. The 87 year-old actor is in nearly every scene of the film and Zev's deterioration is palpably sad to watch. Story-wise, as mentioned, it's a bit of a stilted flick made of of chapter-like scenarios, but these similarly themed scenes build Zev's paranoia and emotional commitment to finding the man who harmed him long ago. Interestingly, Remember is a Holocaust pic that is unlike any Holocaust pic I've ever seen. The elderly vigilante angle in this serious drama is certainly unique and while the end cheapens the proceedings before it by a smidgen, Remember is one you should add to your queue and not forget to watch.
The RyMickey Rating: B
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