Remember (1993) starring Donna Mills, Stephen Collins, Derek de Lint, Ian Richardson, Gail Strickland, Cathy Tyson, Daphne Deckers, Claire Bloom directed by Movie Review

Remember (1993)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Donna Mills in Remember (1993)

Forgettable

It had been 6 months since on the eve of Nicky Wells' (Donna Mills) wedding that her husband to be Charles Devereaux (Derek De Lint) vanishes, suspected dead at sea and since then she has thrown herself into her work as a reporter covering terrorist activities. But now Nicky finds herself in Holland having been ordered by her boss to take a couple of weeks off which she reluctantly agrees to. It is whilst in Amsterdam that she arranges to see her old friend, photographer Clee Donovan (Stephen Collins), who asks her to stay at his home in the country. Just as Clee and Nicky seems to be getting close she becomes convinced that she has seen Charles in some recent video footage and as she tries to find him unravels a complicated storyline involving Charles' past which also puts her and Clee in danger.

I have watched a couple of movies which have been adapted from Barbara Taylor Bradford novels and whilst have not been blown away by them don't think they are completely terrible. In truth I quickly realised when I watched my first movie based on a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel that these movies targeted a specific audience and I wasn't in that specific audience. As such when I sat down to watch "Remember" I didn't expect to be blown away by it and I wasn't with this almost 3 hour made for TV movie being everything I expected including convoluted, false and full of good looking people who always look good even when they have been in danger.

Stephen Collins in Remember (1993)

Now the first hour of "Remember" is quite simple; Nicky has been working hard since husband to be vanished, she gets close to old friend Clee, we learn a bit via flashbacks to how Nicky and Charles met which lays some suspicions at us over Charles and then we get to Nicky tracking her supposedly dead husband down. It doesn't sound a great deal yet surprisingly it is effective and that first hour flies by even if it does feature some ridiculous scenes such as a model who looks like she wants to eat Clee alive as well as some conspicuous men who follow Nicky around and listen in to her conversations.

But unfortunately after a relatively straight forward first hour it then becomes convoluted as the story flips all over the place going from Charles's past to present dangers. If you look at the credits you will see that "Remember" has 4 writers who adapted Barbara Taylor Bradford's story into a TV movie and it actually feels like each wrote a different part and that unfortunately leads to plenty of conflict between the stories as it jars and often features the false sense of drama and romance which these sorts of movies tend to be mocked for. As I said this is a movie where even in the dirtiest of places Donna Mills will always look immaculate and Stephen Collins will always have just the right amount of stubble.

In fairness there are times when "Remember" is entertaining and whilst all the characters are fantasy novel false in style the acting is up to the standard that you expect. It means that if you enjoy watching these sorts of false dramas with characters who always look good then you will enjoy the performances from the likes of Donna Mills and Stephen Collins.

What this all boils down to is that "Remember" is everything I expected it to be both when it came to the convoluted storyline and also the acting and characters. But whilst what I expected it to be didn't wow me it is down to the fact that I am not in the target audience for this sort of movie especially one close to 3 hours.


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