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Try To Remember review
:. Director: Zabou Breitman
:. Starring: Isabelle Carré, Bernard Campan
:. Running Time: 1:50
:. Year: 2002
:. Country: France
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Loss of memory is a very popular theme in today's cinema and its consequences have varied from pure escapism (Open Your Eyes) to twisted machinations (Memento), deadpan comedy (Aki Kaurismaki's Man Without A Past) and sexual (re)discovery (Novo). Rather than capitalizing on the results of amnesia, Try To Remember examines the degenerating process of loss through the eyes of Claire Poussin (Isabelle Carré), a young woman who's inherited Alzheimer's from her mother and whose identity slowly disintegrates before the eyes of her boyfriend, Philippe (Bernard Campan), a patient she met in an institution.
Prisoners of their diseases, Claire & Philippe try to fight their fate through their mutual love, supported by a benevolent doctor (Bernard Lecoq) who's decided to give them one last chance of freedom. After a gentle and humorous first half where we meet the colorful guests of the institution, the film switches to a heavy drama, where we painfully witness the disease taking over Claire. While offering some poetic touches, the tone is darker with a feel of unavoidable doom which contrasts with the development of a slight glow of redemption as Philippe, fed with her love, comes back to life. In his case, forgetting was an easy way out of a tormented past and the path to his recovery is as abrupt as her struggle with fading memories and the disappearance of vital signs.
Try To Remember is built around its two main characters, developing for them an affection which is contagious for an audience who will sympathize and share their pain. Acting is the key here: Carré and Campan provide the necessary charm and emotional range to carry the drama and the picture. First-time director and actress Zabou Breitman provides a solid and nuanced direction, successfully switching through different moods, preserving humor while tackling a grave subject with medical precision.
In the last sequence, Breitman has intertwined the inner world of Claire with the real outside world, giving us a glimpse at what the disease is from the inside. The approach, which is reminiscent of A Beautiful Mind, comes too late, as a last trick, suddenly making us realize how Cronenberg could have taken on such a subject. The singularity of Breitman's film lies in its straightforward sensible narrative, which differentiates it from other works equipped with a more complex vision of the mechanism of memory, such a sequence was unnecessary and could have been used as a premise for an entirely different picture.
While Try To Remember avoids falling into melodramatic exploitation by keeping a predictable conclusion out of the screen, its sense for sentimentalism tends to stretch the film, milking every moment of happiness and trauma, thus reminding you that you are indeed watching a French romantic drama.
Fred Thom
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