Remember

 

This is a riveting suspenseful film with one of the greatest almost mesmeric acting job that I ever saw. Christopher Plummer should win the academy award for his performance of a 90-year-old man suffering from dementia, who sometimes realizes who he is, where he is, and why he is where he is. He looks like a 90-year-old man and acts as one, and does a perfect job impersonating a Jewish man who came to the US from Germany, who suffered in the holocaust, and spoke with a slight Jewish accent appropriate for such a man.

Most times when he awoke, he did not know where he was and why. He thinks his wife Ruth will come soon. He calls for her. He does not know that she died of cancer a week ago, while he held her hand.

He is in a nursing home. Ruth brought him there because of his dementia.

In the home, he meets a holocaust survivor, another old man, Martin Landau, who tells him that like him he is a survivor of Auschwitz.  He tells Plummer that those who have been searching for Nazis know that a Nazi took the name Kurlander, they know there are four Kurlanders, but do not know which of them is the Nazi. Landau gives Plummer a letter with information about each of the four Kurlanders and money and makes reservations for him at hotels and for taxis that he will need during his search. Plummer accepts the job to find the right Kurlander and kill him.

Frequently Plummer forgets his mission. He writes on his wrist “read the letter” to cause him to remember. Once he needs a young girl to read the letter for him. He promised her that his wife Ruth will come soon with candy for her.

The meetings of Plummer and the men he is searching for is eventful. The film has a surprise ending.

This is a film everyone who wants to see a drama with superb acting should see. It is not a typical holocaust film. I saw it on amazon. It was released on May 3, 2016. 87 percent of the 1463 people who rated the film on amazon gave it 4 or 5 stars; 54 percent gave it 5 stars.