Remember Me, My Love (2003) User Reviews

A Tale About the Fragile Balance of Wanting and Needing...

[rixxxhbk · 6/10 · 30 August 2005]

I watched "Ricordati di me" and it felt like a polite conversation that avoids self criticism and only accepts one's personal dreams and ambitions. A conversation that accomplishes nothing since the subconscious is too scared to embark on the dreams because there is no safety net.

'Remember Me, My Love,' as it is known in North America, is a great film that reveals the superficial mask of the family unit. It is the story of a family and its progressive loss of balance between the self and the public sphere of conventional happiness. This film begins beautifully with the personal woes of the family members and the audience can sense the inevitable tipping of the cauldron.

The crossroads for most of the characters is based upon their personal potential and their own self-interests versus the ones created by their environments. For Carlo Ristuccia (played wonderfully by Fabrizio Bentivoglio), Giulia (another great performance by Laura Morante) and Alessia (played by the very talented Monica Belucci) the question at hand is based upon their waning existence. They all seem to feel lost and monotone while they struggle to feel the youthful sensation of bliss and love. The opening sequence is perfectly written and shot to portray the Ristuccias one dimensional life. The screenplay, subtle in its work, progressively displays the inevitable choices to be made by the members of the Ristuccia family.

However, as the characters embark on their selfish adventures, they digress from their intentions and they seem to blindly be repeating their mistakes. Giulia attempts to reconcile her acting career yet fails to see the theme of the play as a reflection of her own state. Carlo, failing to write the last chapter of his novel, never completes his work because he is afraid to risk and lose. He, along with the rest of his family, tries to balance between the want and the need. A problem that is never realized - even in the end.

"Remember Me, My Love" is a film that could have benefited from some slight editing, especially concerning Valentina's storyline, yet the end product leaves you feeling like the characters - a false sense of hope but a bigger sense of loss. This film strikes a reminiscent chord for its audience because it deals with loss - the loss of dreams, the loss of love - and its battle with throwing in the towel. None of the characters experience true happiness however they've convinced themselves at times. The first and final shot sum up the film beautifully as it questions the choices made by each of the man characters. It's all a facade, so enjoy the show.

Don't forget me!

[jotix100 · 7/10 · 26 January 2006]

"Remember my Name", directed by Gabriele Muccino, kept reminding this viewer about his previous film, "The Last Kiss", because in both, the main characters at the center of each story are named Carlo and Giulia. Could this 2003 has anything to do with the other one? Or was it just a coincidence? We don't get any actual fact to tie both movies together, but in a way, the two movies deal with an inner crisis that the two Carlos must face and come to terms with.

This new film has a frenetic pace in the first hour. It seems as though Giulia and Carlo's relationship is strained, despite the somehow normal family life they lead. This is a film that asks a lot from its viewers, as they try to keep pace with the quick tempo Mr. Muccino gives the picture.

It's clear to see that things aren't exactly the best between husband and wife. Carlo is at a point in his life where he can't deal with a job he doesn't care about and Giulia wants to go back to an acting career that didn't materialize when she married Carlo. Valentina, the young daughter, wants to pursue a career in television where beauty and a fast friends view her as a desired commodity. Paolo, the son, is an uncool youth who wants to belong in a world he is not cut out for.

When the gorgeous Alissia enters the picture, Carlo can't resist seeing her again; they have been lovers before, but have lost track of each other in the succeeding years. Their relationship has a negative effect on both households, as Alissia is by now married, and Carlo loses his head when he decides to quit his job and renew his relationship with Alissia. When Carlo suffers a freak accident that sends him to the hospital for a long time, Giulia and the children rally to support him. In fact, this should be something to change Carlo's attitude in forgetting Alissia, but is it? We realize the accident and his gratitude to his wife and kids will be questioned again when we see him in the final moments of the film in the supermarket where he sees Alissia with her two young children as they make last minute Christmas preparations.

Fabrizio Bentivoglio makes us care for the complex Carlo, a man whose passion has been dormant for a long time. Laura Morante, plays Giulia, the woman who has to make choices and wants to keep everyone together. Monica Belucci is seen as Alissia, the one that never stopped loving Carlo.

The movie has a great look thanks to the camera work of Marcello Montarsi. The music by Paolo Buonvino is also an asset in the film. Gabriele Muccino, with this new movie proves to be an important voice in the Italian cinema today and we await for his new film with interest.

more likely to be forgotten

[Buddy-51 · 6/10 · 24 April 2005]

There's a strange sort of paradox at work in "Remember Me, My Love," an Italian film that seems to be operating under some bizarre inverse law of quantum physics. For while the movie itself moves at a breakneck pace, hurtling from one scene to another with near-reckless abandon, we can't help noticing that the faster it goes, the slower it seems. Perhaps, we simply wear ourselves out trying to keep up with it and it is this exhaustion factor that ultimately accounts for our restlessness and ennui.

"Remember Me, My Love" focuses on a family of four, whose members haven't been getting along too well of late. The parents, Carlo and Giulia, are both trying to find ways to cope with a bad case of middle aged crisis: he, by rekindling a romance with a beautiful former flame, and she, by pursuing the career in acting she abandoned when she became a wife and mother. Their children, Valentina and Paolo, are typical adolescents, all caught up in rebellion, identity crises and complicated affairs of the heart.

Although the film attempts to provide some insight into the complexities of modern family life, the characters come across as so whiny and self-indulgent that any sympathy they might have engendered on the part of the audience quickly turns to indifference and even irritation. The actors do their best (particularly Laura Morante as Giulia), but the characters they are called on to play never engage us much beyond the surface level. This lack of depth is further compounded by the whirlwind nature of the storytelling, which rarely allows the actors the time they need to settle down and work out the subtle nuances of their roles.

In all fairness, I must admit that, in the second hour, the film improves considerably, trafficking in some genuinely raw emotions that exemplify the devastating effects that a disintegrating marriage can have on all members of a family. Moreover, the film ends on a courageously inconclusive note, which goes a long way towards mitigating some of the theatricality and artificiality that permeate the rest of the movie.

Taken as a whole, "Remember Me, My Love" turns out to be much less than the sum of its parts, but the performances and a few good scenes do make it palatable.

Great beginning, but far too moralistic at the end!

[laurent-42 · 27 August 2003]

Ok, we read/heard/saw a lot here in Italy about Muccino's new production before its release and perhaps i was somehow expecting too much when I finally saw it. The movie deals with the difficulties of an italian family whose members either face their youth's broken dreams or try (too?) hard to make them become real.

It opens nicely: the characters' personalities are presented in a lively and pleasant way. Carlo's (F. Bentivoglio) routine life is shaken up after meeting casually a former love from high school, Alessia (M. Bellucci); both turn out to be left unsatisfied by their present situation, for slightly different reasons however (one lost his ambitions of becoming a writer, the other is simply hurt by the husband's behavior). They feel attracted by each other again, then decide to catch this opportunity for a brand new start. Carlo's frustrated wife Giulia (L. Morante) once wanted to be an actress on stage but ends up a school teacher because supposedly of her husband's jealousy. It's at the moment her daughter Valentina (N. Romanoff) decides to become a TV starlet that she's offered her first role. Few can be said concerning Carlo's pot-smoking son, Paolo. Well, he appears in sharp contrast with all the other protagonists by his lack of ambitions; his main problem appears to be finding (and keeping) a girlfriend.

I really enjoyed the first hour: the rhythm goes higher and higher as the main two characters start again to burn for each other. The scene between Carlo and his boss is simply fantastic in the italian version. Monica Bellucci looks very natural as a beautiful and decided mother in her late thirties. The action is well served by a succession of short but efficient scenes with a very mobile camera and sharp dialogs.

Afterwards, the movie sinks into a moralistic tale for conventional italian middle-class. A long description of the superficial and twisted world of TV where Valentina wants to dig her own hole at any cost; is there anything original inside all that ? Besides, not a single minute is spent on her feelings; could it be a 17yrs old girl with no apparent problems filled only with egoism and cynicism ? If yes, what about explaining that a little bit ? Meantime Laura Morante shows all her (big) talent in her hysterical scenes but this doesn't save the day because of many shortcomings in the script. Among many others: how it can be that someone who's ready to leave his family completely forgets to call back for days and weeks ? What about the TV guy getting mad in his house because of his child he cannot see: does this bring anything to the movie's main concern ? And this ultimate try of Carlo trying to meet again with Alessia despite the fact it's not known if he's still able to have sex anymore ...

A question raises naturally: why did the director choose to represent every woman (either Alessia or Valentina) who wants to achieve something different compared to the standard italian housewife in such a negative way ? Besides, I've not been able to understand if Carlo's book is crap or not or if Giulia's play is interesting or ridiculous (at least we know it's noisy!). All these points are left open and this prevents the watcher to make any kind of judgement about the adults while the kids are depicted in a simplistic way.

All in all, it could have been a great movie: good actors involved in an interesting plot shot in a beautiful location. However, the second part of the film leaves the impression that the director hasn't been able to make all that stick together and then decided himself for a dull conclusion.

*** out of 5.

Muccino Again

[Paolo_UK · 6/10 · 18 October 2004]

I am not a big fan of Muccino, and this movie didn't change my opinion. What I don't like is the ambiance and the social setting of his movies -it is too often the same Roman middle class, kind of leftist, ordinary people and the same Roman settings that probably reflect his life, family and friends, it looks like Muccino can not direct a movie with different stories, people and situations. This one is full of stereotypes and quite predictable - it is still a nice movie, with some good acting and dialogues, but there is nothing really new. Laura Morante and Gabriele Lavia are good, and when they are on screen together the movie is worth watching. The other actors are OK, but nothing really memorable. The happy (?) ending is definitely meaningless

An ending which could have redeemed this soap

[palmiro · 6/10 · 1 May 2005]

The only way this soap opera turned into a feature film could have redeemed itself would have been with a "Godfather"-like ending: all of the offending parties (and God knows this family was filled with nothing but 'tipi antipatici') would be liquidated at the very end, as just retribution for their total 'antipatia'. This movie has not a single character in it who is likable, which, I suppose, makes for an interesting cinematographic exercise: you'd like to get up and leave these horrible people to themselves and the screen, but you can't bring yourself to do it because you're hoping that the director will obliterate them for you at some point in the film.

That's what the movie says to its audience! (DVD)

[leplatypus · 7/10 · 2 April 2009]

"La" Bellucci being Italian and famous, she features in Italian productions that can reach my french pastures, so I can keep in touch with this cool country:

Italia has everything ready to make people enjoy life: clothes, music, pasta,.. Maybe that's why Italians are said to be smiling French, and French sad Italians! What is also striking after watching Italian TV is that the ordinary people has more weight there than in France where they turn invisible in front of the "People"!

So, it isn't a surprise that this movie is about an ordinary family, except that every member seems very unhappy and broken. It's always paradoxical for me because it doesn't suppose to be like this: Married with children, it is all that it takes to have a perfect life! I'm single and I know the sadness to lead a lonely life.

At the end, they gather themselves together and are closer than ever! In between, they face their private dragons, their biggest tragedies, they are at each other's throats. For more than 20 minutes, the atmosphere is very heavy, with cries, shoots, slaps…

So, they learn to survive and forgive! So, just watch this movie and I'm sure you will say, as me, I will remember it!

Where's the love?

[=G= · 6/10 · 27 March 2005]

"Remember Me, My Love" takes a long, hard, cold look at a somewhat decadent Italian bourgeois family of two midlife parents and two old teen kids as it examines their lives and loves with a distinct absence of the heart we've come to expect from Italian cinema. A technically excellent film with fodder for voyeurism where the story should be, this flick shows us the father as he falls for an old girlfriend, the mother as she tries to breath life into an acting career, the daughter who's sleeping her way into a two-bit showgirl slot, and a son who's just vying for the attention of a girl while smoking hash and partying. "Remember Me, My Love", which would have us believe everyone in Italy is beautiful, is a very good looking, always busy, too long, and less than satisfying watch with rapid dialogue and white subtitles which are difficult to read on light backgrounds making it a bit of a grind. (B)

A delicate, multi-faceted, true and touching punch in your stomach

[vanillafan · 10/10 · 27 February 2003]

Yesterday I saw this excellent movie, and it is still lingering in my brain and my soul.

I merely liked, not loved, Gabriele Muccino's smash Italian hit L'Ultimo Bacio when I saw it, since its depiction of thirtysomething doubts and fears left a sort of slightly fake aftertaste in my mouth. Plus, it waned out of my mind in a couple of hours, even though I had enjoyed while I was in the theatre.

Ricordati Di Me is a very, very different deal. It's a delicate, multi-faceted, true and touching punch in your stomach.

Well written and well played - especially by the extremely skillful and absolutely charming Fabrizio Bentivoglio, who's one of Italy's most gifted thesps as well as the longtime boyfriend of Rain Man's Valeria Golino (here you see him pouring his heart out onscreen with painful, searing directness) - the movie brings you into the home of a dysfunctional Italian family not dissimilar from so many dysfunctional Italian families.

Meet them: there is the melancholic, romantic, slightly frustrated husband Carlo (played by Bentivoglio), who's an obscure white-collar worker who once wanted to be a writer and keeps a sensitivity that leaves him totally exposed to raw emotions and to the eventual unfair blow of fate, all of this while keeping as well a still-unfinished novel in one of his drawers; then there is his VERY frustrated teacher wife (played by the ever-classy Laura Morante), who once wanted to be a stage actress. They've got two teenage kids, one of them a vain and egotistical 18-year-old daughter, keen on only one thing, i.e. becoming a TV starlet (played by stunning newcomer Nicoletta Romanoff), and the other one a vaguely leftish, pot-smoking daydreamer senior high schooler son (played by the director's brother).

Nothing new or revolutionary here, be sure of that, but the whole tale elaborated by Gabriele Muccino about the emotional disintegration of this apparently average family is narrated with passion and participation, both by its writer-director and by the actors.

The foursome meet enormous difficulties in communicating with each other - not only the parents with their children do, but also each of them with any other one, and egotism and indifference run rampant, especially in the veins of Valentina, the young daughter, who's a truly upsetting spectacle to watch, what with her relentless pursuing of a tinsel world, a world made of garish make-up, TV studios and squalid sex relationships with one or the other TV beefcake idol, since this girl, while still looking very innocent on the outside, would do anything to be cast in some cheesy TV show as one of the decorative babes who strut and grind in the background.

So, when you see Carlo, the husband, falling again - after many years - for married and unsatisfied mother of two Alessia (the ever-stunning Monica Bellucci, here way more expressive and intense than usual), an old flame of his youth, you just cannot think, not even for a second, of him as a middle-aged philanderer, or of Alessia as your typical homewrecker. The rekindling of their love is something so pure, so tender, so NEEDED by both these characters, that you can't help rooting for them - and be heartbroken when things just become spinning in a totally unpredicted direction, which I don't want to spoil for you.

I also truly appreciated the open ending, which leaves the audience enough room to imagine whatever they like for the future life of these characters, who've just been, anyway, through a journey able to break - once and for all - the walls of hypochrisy that previously surrounded them.

Go and see this movie, you won't regret it.

remember me (and not my failure) my love?

[ThurstonHunger · 6/10 · 19 May 2014]

Had the trappings of a dysfunctional family dramadey, but sans much comedy. A family of four with the two kids about to leave the nest, caught my middle-aging eye (as opposed to my aging middle eye). The couple dealing with weariness on the surface with each other, but perhaps more truthfully with themselves...the tension of teenagers trying on adult situations too, these set me up with enough interest.

All four family members come with their own crises, largely self-made and each oblivious to the others in the family. For some reason that obliviousness seemed to hurt me the viewer, more than the characters themselves.

The father and son in the movie confuse sex with love. Italian men may do this better than others, it's debatable. The women stumble through sex while trying to find their careers, but each career is contingent upon the applause of others (art-house small theatre for mom, solid gold dancing and canned TV clapping for the daughter).

By the way, all four family members are drop-dead good looking. Three are insecure about it, while the daughter pretty much banks on her beauty. She literally sleeps with her mirror, both soundly and while in coitus with a stepping stone stage hand leading towards the television altar. Does it matter that the role is literally that of a harem girl.

To make the family members see each other, Dad is sent reeling by an old flame, even more powerfully attractive than the stunning mother. The flame's (Monica Belluci's) beauty is only over-shadowed by a vacant beach-house that her mother owns somewhere on the shoreline of heaven.

Typically in these movies, we are fed some transcendent family epiphany as they rally together while facing their flaws. And I often don't mind those moments as I think there are genuine truths within them, but this film does something a bit bizarre.

Spoiler coming...

The car accident that nearly kills the father and as expected thereby saves the father, feels really wrong. Comments in the chat section of IMDb talk about Carlo at the end, the forced smile and the not-so-chance meeting the bellisima Belluci-ma. Also we see she that her character did in fact leave her husband.

A day after watching this, I cannot shake the notion that this movie seems like an apology from the director (or the writer or a producer) to his lover for not leaving his family. And something tells me his own "car wreck" preventing him from joining her was only a symbolic one.

I'm certain his jilted lover will always remember him, and not as kindly as this film would have one believe.

American Beauty wannabe

[petra_ste · 4/10 · 28 May 2007]

While I am no American Beauty fan, I admit it is a smartly made movie with great performances and fine writing. It seems director Muccino loved it so much he decided to make his own version, Ricordati di Me.

Of course there is a middle-class family whose members detest each other; of course they all undergo some kind of revelation and change their attitude towards life. Meek Carlo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) meets old flame Alessia (Monica Bellucci); frustrated Giulia (Laura Morante), Carlo's wife, pursues her passion for theater and becomes romantically interested in her director (Gabriele Lavia); their daughter Valentina (Nicoletta Romanoff) sleeps her way to stardom and their son Silvio (Silvio Muccino) develops a crush for a girl.

Acting is uneven. Silvio Muccino, the director's son, gives a dreadful performance, mumbling his way through. Laura Morante is odiously over-the-top; I wonder if the blame is on the director, since I have seen this kind of overacting elsewhere in his filmography and Morante is usually a competent actress. Bentivoglio is better, although if you want to see him shine watch the underrated Come Due Coccodrilli. Nicoletta Romanoff is passable, but her character is so obnoxious that every time she was on screen I wanted her to be run over by a truck. Monica Bellucci, who usually just relies on her good looks, is better than expected; veteran Gabriele Lavia is the best of the bunch as the gay director.

Sadly, these characters are both unlikable and boring, a deadly combination. Now, it is possible to make good and even great movies about characters who are reprehensible or just not very sympathetic (Once Upon a Time in America, Sleuth, Ronin, The Hateful Eight...), but they need to be compelling. In Ricordati di Me the protagonists are a bunch of shallow, bored individuals, as derivative as the movie they inhabit.

4/10

A Tale of Passion, Frustration and Dreams

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 23 April 2007]

In the dysfunctional Italian middle-class family Ristuccia, the middle-aged executive Carlo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) has a stalled life without passion, bored in his work and having a monotonous life with his wife Giulia (Laura Morante). Giulia is a frustrated and hysterical woman because she gave up of being an actress in her youth to dedicate to the family. Their needy son Paolo (Silvio Muccino) feels lost and rejected, trying to find who he is and flirting with a schoolmate. Their seventeen years old daughter Valentina (Nicoletta Romanoff) is decided to work in a television show, and is fighting to have an audition. When Carlo meets his former sweetheart Alessia (Monica Bellucci) in a class reunion, they confess to each other that their marriages are in crisis and both feel passion arising again. Meanwhile Giulia is invited to an audition in a stage production and to participate of a play. Paolo tries to make friends using marijuana in his birthday party, and Valentina has sex with different guys trying to be a dancer of the famous TV show 'Ali Babbi'. Their relationships change when Carlo has an accident.

Two years ago, I saw "L'Ultimo Bacio" on DVD, a beautiful and delightful movie about relationship in different phases of life directed by Gabriele Muccino. I was impressed with this director, and recently it was released "Recordati di me" on DVD in Brazil. I have just watched and it is amazing the sensibility of this director with the dynamics and feelings of a family, presenting a tale of passion, frustration and dreams. The realistic relationships between the members of this common middle-class family is disclosed though the lost dreams and passions of the parents, and the dreams and aspirations of their son and daughter. The cast is amazing, with a sensational Laura Morante, the stunning Monica Bellucci, the sexy Nicoletta Romanoff and the impressive Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Silvio Muccino, all of them perfect in their respective roles. This movie is recommended for those viewers that want to see a realistic, full of sentiments and never corny dramatic tale. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "No Limite das Emoções" ("In the Limit of the Emotions")

An average muvi

[riadmsh · 6/10 · 14 July 2020]

The pace ws too quick...is lyf soo hasty?? thr ws no scope for the characters to show some magic and thts wat lacked its strength...but it had some inner beauties....th wife did good in her part.....and that worths seeing an average muvi...

Ripetitivo, previdibile commozione

[B24 · 5/10 · 17 March 2006]

Soap opera enthusiasts will love this film. Each scene telegraphs what predictable nonsense will follow. The only element rising above such overwrought displays is generally apt use of camera and sound to capture an authentic flavor of life in a neurotic sort of middle-class Italian household, circa early twenty-first century.

The plot is too obvious even to discuss in this forum. Others may do so, but I consider it an exercise analogous to a dog chasing its tail. Each main character is moreover annoying to the point of inviting frenzy as the only resolution to trying to understand what, exactly, each one is about. There is as well much shouting and physically running around, cell phones in hand.

Watch it for its sets, its scenery, its depiction of contemporary Italy -- a cosmopolitan milieu eschewing travelogue vistas in favor of modern kitchens, television studios, and panoramic street scenes in residential neighborhoods.

Providing, of course, that there is nothing better on the adjacent channel.

The Inner Sanctum of Family, The Durability of Love

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 17 April 2005]

RECORDATI DI ME is a beautifully written and constructed film by Italian director Gabriele Muccino about the workings of a 'normal middle class' family and the bonds and challenges that peak at the time of fragmentation of the family unit that accompanies 1) middle age of the parents and 2) departure of the children at the end of high school. How those crises and adjustments inform the durability of the family unit makes up this thoroughly engrossing and touching film.

Carlo Ristuccia (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is the father embedded in a life long job that is mundane and not at all in line with his dreams of being a writer (he has been writing a novel for years, yet unfinished). His wife Giulia (Laura Morante) is a committed mother but longs to return to the acting stage she abandoned for marriage. Their two children are Valentina (Nicolette Romanoff) who is determined to become a glamorous TV star and Paolo (Silvio Muccino) who is aimless in his desire for a life of meaning, a life which would prove he is not as unexceptional as he views himself.

Gradually each member of the family encounters escape routes: Carlo meets his old girlfriend Alessia (Monica Bellucci) and begins an affair with her; Giulia is asked to audition for a part in a play directed by one Alfredo (Gabriele Lavia) who makes her feel desirable and noticed; Valentina sleeps around to land a part in a TV giveaway show 'Ali Babbi', and Paolo attempts to attach himself to a girlfriend by planning a birthday party with contraband hashish which he feels will make him appear important in the eyes of his peers. As each of these crises reaches a peek, Carlo sustains a back injury while fleeing his home and his resultant hospitalization results in altered perceptions of what the family is all about.

The twists and turns of the plot are, of course, far more involved than this short synopsis, and it is the development of each of these characters and the way that they approach change that makes the film work so well.The acting is excellent and the direction is past paced even for a two and a half hour movie. Yes, much of this has been said before, but the wit and pathos combine to create a story well worth telling and watching. It is a story about dreams, lost possibilities, and the need to fulfill them.

A moralist view of family, in Italy of years 2000

[Qwerty77 · 4/10 · 19 May 2003]

The plot it's not so original. If someone saw "L'ultimo Bacio" there's nothing new. A wealthy family in Rome living everyday life that's is boring and false, with everyone asking to others what they think about them. Really boring after an half of hour because it's simple to understand where the story is going to finish. This because it's simple to see the moralistic view of Muccino in this movie, so even the hardest parts seem normal. To summarise in the first 2 minutes of the movie it would be enough and the aim of the movie were already said. the family saw from a 30 years old, i don't like to see movie that want to show the reality but for be coherent to his thoughts has to push more than the normal the situations. Really good how Muccino put the camera in the right place moving with the carathers and it's the only reason that bring me not sleeping in the cinema though always in the movie scream from the begining. Perhaps it could be good to see the family how they are in reality and not put the blame to something out of it. Morante was intense and great as usual but unfortunatly on a bad movie!

Excellent, once again

[TdSmth5 · 10/10 · 25 October 2004]

Just like the director's previous effort _The Last Kiss_ this movie is about life. And no one brings more realism to his representations of the human condition than Muccino. There's pain and suffering, there's pleasures and elation, loss and gain, sadness and happiness but mostly a search to find ourselves in the time we have been given. Unlike one-dimensional American movies, Muccino's films show how with pleasure comes pain and that in pain are the seeds of pleasure. The acting is perfect. Bellucci looks gorgeous and so does Laura Morante. There is so much going on in this film that invariably, some story lines will be less interesting to some than others. This and _The Last Kiss_ are great celebrations of life.

excellent acting and utterly uninvolving characters

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 27 November 2005]

The actors did a really good job playing their roles--particularly the mom. However, as the movie progressed I found I was watching it more for their acting and not because I cared in the least for the people. And, at times, I felt irritated by the irresponsible and hands-off approach to parenting displayed again and again. The daughter is a 17 year-old shallow skank whose main ambition in life is bedding famous men and becoming a dancing nyphette (complete with lots of "booty shaking"). The son is a guy with low self-esteem that seems very desperate for a relationship and friends--so much that he throws a drug party late in the film. The husband and wife are both bored, but rather than put energy into their stale relationship would rather seek out new partners (though the wife picks poorly, as the man she "throws herself at" happens to be gay---OOPS!). I just felt that ALL the characters needed to grow up and had a hard time caring for such shallow jerks. I think the author's attempt was to demonstrate the utter banality and hollowness of the capitalist system. However, given that these characters are NOT typical of the average western family, it seems disingenuous.

The ties that bind our selfishness center on a longing for love and being loved

[dlpatrick1 · 8/10 · 3 April 2005]

This movie is hard to absorb, partly because the dialogue is difficult in translation and partly because of the fading and mixing of scenes that introduce the 4 character stories within. Four people in a family so plausibly like middle class families everywhere, except here in Italy the members are more likely to be beautiful, handsome, suave, and worth staring at for some feature or another. Muccino shows us that the happiness we work for within a family is easily thrown away (no wonder there is so much divorce), but that the common need to have one place where we think we can be recognized and loved for who we are can bind even the most dysfunctional family unit. Each character here is struggling with ego. Carlo (the handsome Fabrizio Bentivoglio whose hair belongs on marble statues) wants romantic love and an escape from boredom of his job and family -- he ought to have had something different, but he doesn't, and honestly he is the middle of middle class personified -- a salesman working on number 8 sale. Guilia (Larua Morante -- among the most beautiful of Italian actresses currently) is hopelessly insecure but pictures herself as a great stage actress, which is might possibly be -- if it really was her obsession -- the real obsession being to retain the normality of her marriage facade. Valentina (Nicoletta Romanoff) is the a self absorbed teen age bod beautiful with the hips and hair of her generation -- so anxious for a bit role in a dreadful television programme to recognize her beauty. And finally Paolo (A Muccino relative surely) desperate for recognition of his specialness. All want recognition for the specialness and at the same time the security of the familiar. Every moment of this movie shows the tension between the desire for a self-perceived "fame" or "happiness" based on selfishness and the pull that conventional family love provides. These characters recognize true happiness when the routine is threatened and Fabrizio faces possible paraplegia. The other three cannot (although they do) contemplate anything but return to the beginning. Scene after scene develops the characters -- and portrays their dilemma of self versus family -- something many of us continually face when lucky enough to have a unit that is at the same time crushing of self and supportive of "love". The ending is perfect -- smile, Fabrizio-- One was left knowing that nothing had really changed for this family or the individuals involved although 3 of them appeared to get what they wanted -- and even Fabrizio got his "break" from routine. Maybe he was the unluckiest and had to smile the hardest as he built his selfish love on a dream that had no apparent fulfillment (NO BRIEF ENCOUNTER THIS -- just a desire for a Brief Encounter). I imagine this movie was very disappointing to many -- it was a treat to one who scoured the video store for something different and found a depiction of every day life that was hopeful and helpless and maybe the description of a happiness that is never fully satisfactory but we are required in the end to accept -- and to live without ever being fully aware.

should have been much shorter

[jedilost · 3/10 · 12 December 2004]

The film starts with a voice over telling the audience where they are, and who the characters are. And that is the moment i started to dislike the movie. With all the endless possibilities any film director have in hand, i really find it a very easy and cheap solution to express the situation with a voice over telling everything. I actually believe voice overs are betrayals to the film making concept.

I hate to hear from a voice over saying where we are, which date we are at, and especially what the characters feel and think. I believe that a director has to find a visual way to transmit the feelings and the thoughts of the characters to the audience.

But after the bad influencing intro, a very striking movie begins and keeps going for a fairly long enough time. The lives of a middle class family and all the members individually are depicted in a perfect realistic way. I think the director has a talent for capturing real life situations. For example, a father who has to make his private calls from the bathroom might seem abnormal at first, but life itself leads us some situations which might seem abnormal but also very normal as well. I think the director is a very good observer about real life.

But that is it. After a while the realism in the movie begins to sacrifice the story-telling. I really felt like I'm having a big headache because of the non-stop talking characters. It was as if the actors and actresses were given the subject and were allowed to improvise the dialogs. It is realistic really, but characters always asking "really, is that so" etc. to each other, or characters saying "no" or "are you listening to me," ten times when saying it only once is just enough causes me to have a headache.

I also think the play practicing and book reading scenes are more then they should be. I understand that the play and the book in the movie are very much related to the plot, but i think the director has missed the point where he should stop showing these scenes.

If you like foreign films, then check this one out

[orangebowl2001us · 8/10 · 25 September 2005]

Spoiler alert! If you go to a movie to see action, special effects, and lots of sex and violence, this isn't the film for you. If you do like to see quality acting and stories about real life and relationships, this is for you. In fact, everyone in Carlo's family (his wife, his son and his daughter) are all looking for something more in life than what they have. Fabrizio Bentiviglio gives an excellent performance as the aloof Carlo, who wants to feel alive again. Laura Morante is also quite good at being the ultra-annoying housewife (Giulia) who does her best to push Carlo away without trying. Monica Bellucci is still beautiful at almost 40 years of age in this film. She plays the other woman (Alessia) who is a long lost love of Carlo's, and she's also married. Before the movie is over, you want to see Carlo and Alessia together, even though both of them have spouses and children to think about. All of the characters experience life-changing events that change them forever; some for the better, others not.

The casting is excellent in this film. Silvio Muccino plays Paolo, Carlo's son, who is tired of feeling like a loser and pining for a girl named Ilaria. It's scary how much Silvio looks like a younger version of Fabrizio. Nicoletta Romanoff plays Valentina, Carlo and Giulia's daughter. She wants to be a television star, and will do anything to get there.

It is a good movie with exceptional acting that leaves you with a bittersweet feeling in the end.

Turning points...

[jpschapira · 9/10 · 6 September 2007]

I read somewhere that "Remember Me" doesn't succeed at achieving everything it wants to be; this is false. This movie achieves everything it is with great professionalism and expertise. What is this? To show the turning point of the lives of several characters, and to make us understand that a turning point can arrive at any time of our lives. The characters in the film are 17, 19 and above forty years old. Of course, they are a family, but that doesn't change the unusual ages in which their turning point arrives.

We are first introduced to Carlo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and Giulia (Laura Morante), the married couple, by a narration that sounds so accurate and charming it made me forget about the horrible narration used in "Perfume". This narration knows its time, and it appears only at the turning points of the film, which are not the same as 'the' turning point I mentioned above, and play more as twists…The movie has many of these, and the narration refers to them in the way Meredith Grey would in "Grey's Anatomy"; but somehow they sound right. In "Perfume", the narration was full of unnecessary comments during unnecessary moments.

Valentina (Nicoletta Romanoff) and Paolo (Silvio Muccino) are also described by the soft narrated voice, and their descriptions are the work of a gifted writer; Gabriele Muccino. Unlike his script for "The Last Kiss", Muccino here collaborated with Heidrun Schleef, and they both show a sense of reality that these days is very difficult to achieve. All the changes they introduce to the screenplay, from beginning to end; we accept, because we believe their characters as soon as we see them.

Muccino is also a gifted director, and through his words, he presents a story so beautiful and complex and painful that it will probably get tears out of your eyes. But "Remember Me" is no sermon; it's a true lesson of life and love, and Muccino tells it in a world of constant disappointment and frustration, of things forgotten and lost, but a world that also offers new opportunities and keeps the faith. There were times where I felt like watching "El hijo de la novia" again; where you were taken from sorrow to joy…Non-stop.

This movie comes to Argentina now, after four years of being made and I think watching it once may not be enough. I think you should watch it five times and follow closely the development of a different character during each viewing. Because there's one character who also experiences a big change, and it's beautifully played by Monica Bellucci but that's all I say about it. So maybe after watching it five times, you can completely appreciate it.

There are details in every character; details in every performance worth watching again. Laura Morante's character lies on a fine line between insanity and sense, and her performance (which made me think of a big friend, Dolores, and a possibility of her acting sooner or later) is fabulous because she's never too much of either; so she leaves no room for exaggeration in her portrayal and remains a palpable being. Bentivoglio's work is a way to see how a man can get rid all the rage he feels inside by doing what he really feels…The classic way of escaping the routine, that Silvio Muccino tenderly captures in a slightly different way. And Nicoletta Romanoff's character requires bravery to appear ridiculous…Her performance has courage to spare.

Pieces like this one take romance and comedy and drama to a whole different level. Maybe "Remember Me" is the film that we need to see, so that it will generate a turning point in our lives and we'll never enter to the cinema to watch something like "No Reservations" again. Yes, that's a regular film; but beside this it's nothing.