If Twil­ight is Robert Pattinson’s ride in first class — the smooth, pain­less jaunt with slightly-prettier views and largely grime-free sur­round­ings, then Remem­ber Me is the British heartthrob’s excur­sion in Coach — a slightly cheaper, not quite as cushy and slightly bumpier ride with­out the views and con­tin­u­ous pop music play­ing from sur­round­ing speakers.

But as most usu­ally dis­cover when they ride coach, it’s a lot more mem­o­rable a trip, and even more so, you’re usu­ally sur­rounded by great peo­ple you’ll pos­si­bly never for­get (in my case, I met one of my old­est friends rid­ing on a bus when I was about 14-years-old!). And I tell ya, you won’t soon for­get the peo­ple or the plot of the ter­rific Remem­ber Me either.

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No offense to Twi­light or its sequels (in fact, I’ve found the films per­fectly enter­tain­ing), but a scene from any of the flicks isn’t some­thing an artiste would ever likely attach as a wmv file to their email appli­ca­tion to Jul­liard. Per­fectly OK film, but its more style over sub­stance, and quite frankly, there’s noth­ing much for its stars to do but frown, gaze, eye­ball or whim­per. As a con­se­quence, we haven’t really seen whether or not Robert ‘good guy vam­pire Edward’ Pat­tin­son has what it takes as an actor (con­sid­er­ing he does more sparkling than per­form­ing in the lat­ter films). We know he’s got per­fect hair, and he’s def­i­nitely got enough charisma on-screen and off to con­vinc­ingly win over his lead­ing lady, but is the young Brit capa­ble of deliv­er­ing a per­for­mance that’d make those decrepit wrin­kled film fans at the Kodak the­atre sit up and take notice?

We now have the answer. And, it’s Yes.

Pattinson’s turn as the for­lorn, love-struck and appre­cia­bly human Tyler in Remem­ber Me is the role that’ll turn the young actor from a movie star to an ‘actor’.

Tyler’s your typ­i­cal trou­bled youth. Hav­ing his lost older brother a few years before, which in turn has con­se­quently pushed his big­wig father (Pierce Bros­nan) even fur­ther away than he already was, he’s a bit lost, and seem­ingly con­vinced nobody knows what he’s going through. That’s until he meets Ally (Emi­lie de Ravin), a young girl with just as many hor­rors in her past, not to men­tion father prob­lems of her own. Together, Tyler and Ally find hap­pi­ness and a rea­son to carry on.

There’s a black cloud hang­ing over the rela­tion­ship though. Unbe­knownst to Ally, Tyler knows her father, and their com­ing together had noth­ing to do with chance. The stern New York Police Detec­tive (Chris Cooper) had arrested him not long before. And it was only when Tyler and his room­mate (Tate Elling­ton) dis­cov­ered Ally was the officer’s daugh­ter did they decide to approach her.

Directed by Allen Coul­ter (Hol­ly­wood­land) and based on a script by Will Fet­ters, this highly-emotional jour­ney is all meat. Here, you’ll wit­ness not only fine per­for­mances, but be immersed in a story that not only cap­tives, but touches, teaches and quite pos­si­bly, makes us a bet­ter per­son as a result. It really is, quite the package.

The romance at the cen­ter of the film, per­formed bril­liantly and cred­i­bly by Pat­tin­son and Lost star de Ravin, is one of the rawest, realest and most unforced cou­plings in recent years. It works bril­liantly. There’s more fan­tas­ti­cal about it at all — thus, you hon­estly believe they’re a true-blue couple.

Just as cred­i­ble is the rela­tion­ship between Pat­tin­son and on-screen father Pierce Bros­nan — it plays far more valid than most on-screen father-and-son duos, with the for­mer 007 giv­ing an espe­cially grounded but wel­com­ingly more mul­ti­far­i­ous take on an armour-clad father, hell-bent on not expos­ing his real emotions.

And speak­ing of mem­o­rable per­for­mances, young Ruby Jerins, play­ing Tyler’s inhib­ited and bul­lied sis­ter, gives one that’ll hope­fully catch the atten­tion of the award vot­ers early 2011.

Many will talk of the film’s shock end­ing, which quite frankly seems to come out of nowhere, as bril­liant an idea as it may be, but that hope­fully won’t over­shadow the fine film that’s played out up til then.

Remem­ber Me is the first great film of 2010. Not to be missed.

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