'Remember' is preposterous but Christopher Plummer brings pathos and dignity

'Remember' stars Plummer as a widower living in an assisted living facility who attempts to track down an Auschwitz camp commander.

|
A24 Films
Christopher Plummer as nonagenarian Zev Guttman (r.), a recent widower living in an assisted living facility, and fellow resident Max (Martin Landau) who both survived Auschwitz, in a scene from 'Remember.'

There are movies that are terrible and yet, because of some naggingly compelling core idea, are still compelling. Such a beast is Atom Egoyan’s revenge fantasy “Remember,” written by Benjamin August and starring Christopher Plummer as nonagenarian Zev Guttman, a recent widower living in an assisted living facility near New York. Both Zev and fellow resident Max (Martin Landau) survived Auschwitz. With his wife gone, Zev, whose memory is slipping, is tasked by Max, who uses a wheelchair, to track down the camp commander responsible for murdering both men’s families. Max believes this man, Rudy Kurlander, is living in the United States under an assumed name, and provides Zev with the addresses of four possible suspects.

The plot, as it unwinds, is increasingly eye-poppingly preposterous, but it holds you anyway, not only because of its outlandishness but because Plummer, against all odds, brings pathos and dignity to a role that doesn’t deserve him. Grade: C+ (Rated R for a scene of violence, language.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Remember' is preposterous but Christopher Plummer brings pathos and dignity
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2016/0318/Remember-is-preposterous-but-Christopher-Plummer-brings-pathos-and-dignity
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe