Remember
January 11, 2016
Showings 4:30, 7:00 and 9:10pm
Canada
Rated: 14A | Drama/Suspense | 95 minutes
Master filmmaker Atom Egoyan (Ararat, The Sweet Hereafter) tackles one of the darkest chapters of 20th-century history in the gripping thriller Remember, which gives legendary actor Christopher Plummer (Elsa & Fred, Beginners) a majestic role as an elderly Holocaust survivor seeking revenge on the man responsible for the deaths of his family.
Plummer plays Zev, a recent widower whose deteriorating mental state forces him to be placed under permanent care. When he discovers that the concentration-camp guard who murdered his relatives is now living in America under an assumed identity, Zev resolves to fulfill his final vow to his wife by exacting vengeance on the escaped war criminal. With the support of his friend Max (Martin Landau, Lovely, Still, Ed Wood), Zev sets out on his mission with grim purpose — but his quest for retribution leads to unexpected results.
Working from an original script by first-time screenwriter Benjamin August, Egoyan generates nerve-shredding suspense as the unlikely avenger pursues the demon from his past. Plummer is remarkable as the driven Zev, and the stellar supporting cast — which also includes Henry Czerny (TV’s The Tudors, Fido), Jürgen Prochnow (TV’s 24, Das Boot), Bruno Ganz (The Reader, Downfall) and Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris as a neo-Nazi state trooper — help make Remember one of the most compelling thrillers in recent memory.
Plummer’s performance is quietly magnificent, turning the heavy breathing, shaking hands and slow responses of the elderly into a heart-rending vulnerability while also capturing his character’s enduring intelligenceand psychic pain.
—Kate Taylor, The Globe and Mail
Such a remarkable and riveting film, a nail biter from the get-go.
Everything about the film was brilliantly crafted to draw you along, right to the very end which was shockingly unexpected.
Granted, it is a dark part of our history, and excruciatingly painful to watch: it is also an essential part of an ongoing dialogue about racism, hate and genocide. Loved it.