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Mar 08, 2016 By Jason Wilson Web Exclusive

At first, Remember seems like it is geared to be a prestige drama about long percolating suffering and the thirst for revenge and redemption. It looks like a vehicle for Christopher Plummer to don the dementia act, garnering the awards-bait label for his brave performance. Instead, Remember returns something grittier, almost along the lines of an exploitation film.

Zev (Plummer) lives in a nursing home. He and Max (Martin Landau) are both survivors of Auschwitz. After Zev’s wife passes away, Max reminds his neighbor of a promise and asks him if he’s ready now that his wife has died. Zev agrees. The promise is to find a former Nazi soldier who was responsible for the deaths of both their families. Max discovered that he likely moved to the United States under the presumed name Rudy Kurlander. He found four such people with this name, scattered throughout the U.S. and Canada and Zev (“wolf” in Hebrew) goes on his hunt.

The problem is, Zev suffers from dementia. In the opening scene, he awakes yelling for his wife. She’s been dead more than a week. For him to be able to complete his mission, he must rely on his letter of instructions from Max. It is his map, his reminder of what needs to be done. Each time he finds one of the Rudys on his list, he faces unique and different challenges. One such Rudy is already on his deathbed. Before Zev can act, he sees the numbers on the Rudy’s arm indicating he was a prisoner in Auschwitz, not a guard. He tells Zev he was imprisoned because he is homosexual. This scene could easily have laid it on too thickly, but it’s wisely concise – like the film itself at a brisk 95 minutes - giving just enough time to let it sink in how all walks of human life were impacted all those decades earlier.

Another meeting comes in the form of John Kurlander (Dean Norris) whose father, Rudy, had died a couple years earlier. This is where the film shifts in tone. John takes Zev in, believing him to be an old friend of his father’s, and shows him the collection of Nazi memorabilia in the basement. He beams, almost glows, with pride over his father’s hatred. The scene’s tension boils and heightens with every glimpse of Zev’s pained expression whenever John expresses reverence for these symbols of death and horrors.

Plummer delivers a fantastic, subtle and measured performance – which shouldn’t surprise anyone – and it helps buoy the film as it teeters over into pulpier territory. When the film starts to go over the top, he keeps it steady. Remember balances its tones really well and goes all in when the crazy starts to pile up.

It doesn’t all work – the subplot involving Zev’s son who is on the lookout for him after he sneaks away from the nursing home is complete filler and should have been cut. There’s another scene where he buys a fresh set of clothes only for a security officer to find his glock while inspecting his bags, setting up a clumsy commentary on gun control. For the most part, however, Remember is able to toe the delicate line between prestige and pulp without ever being didactic.

a24films.com/films/remember

Remember opens March 11, 2016.

Author rating: 8/10