That was one helluva of a party trick. Can you make my little brother reappear next?
Remember Me (2014) is a television mini-series which might as well be taken as a story, as it’s not episodic, but simply a longish movie. This is a cross-genre tale, combining elements of a murder mystery with the crotchety old man genre and the supernatural, and it uses these elements to gradually tell a story which doesn’t let on where it’s going, which is fairly delightful. Tom Parfitt is an old man who decides to fake a fall down the stairs at his house. Taken to the hospital, he begs his way into a retirement home, taking none of his possessions with him.
None at all.
So a junior retirement home employee, Hannah, takes it upon herself to bring him a few clothes from his nearby home. At the retirement home, his newly assigned social worker goes to his room to help settle him in, and, amidst what appears to be an earthquake, is flung bodily out the window. As she’s up a couple of floors, this all ends abruptly and unpleasantly for her.
And Parfitt isn’t too happy, either.
But things gradually become odder and odder. Why did Parfitt, who’s obviously not handicapped, looking to enter a retirement home? Why do sea shells keep showing up? How much longer before Hannah explodes from the stress of a dead mother, alcoholic mother, and dependent brother?
And how long before the cop actually takes a swing at his boss?
But when an Indian lady keeps showing up in photos ranging over 130 years, that’s where we begin looking at the rents in the fabric of reality, who made them and who’s paying for them. And it keeps the audience’s interest right to the end, twist upon twist. Is old man Parfitt even a functioning adult?
Done by the BBC, it exhibits the quiet competency we expect from British productions, and the thoughtfulness that comes from eschewing crazy action movies. While it wasn’t so compelling as to rate a recommendation, as I can see some audience members finding it tiresome, we greatly enjoyed it and are happy we stumbled across it.
