Alternate Best Actor 2015: Christopher Plummer in Remember

Christopher Plummer did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Zev Guttman in Remember. 

Remember, that follows an old man suffering from dementia on a mission to kill a Nazi war criminal, I think is largely undermined by its own contrivances. 

That is a bit of a shame however as it has a strong cast, with three actors giving among their final performances in the great Martin Landau, Bruno Ganz and of course Christopher Plummer in the lead role. These performances really lend greater credibility to the film that itself runs too much more so as an exploitation piece than a genuine examination of dementia or the holocaust. Thankfully the performances are there particularly Christopher Plummer. Plummer's performance takes the material very seriously and puts as much effort into the role as if the film was a great one, like say The Father, which does evidently put most similar films to shame. Plummer's performance though is terrific in creating the state of his Zev Guttman an older German man living alone at a nursing home after the passing of his wife. This as he creates a sense of a kind of undercurrent of a malaise of the man trying always to figure out where he is and what he is doing. There is in his performance this moment of calibration essentially that effectively portrays man figuring out what's going on in any given situation. Plummer creating this state vividly of the man who is actively trying to stabilize himself and make sense of his situation, which becomes built around a letter written by his seeming friend, and fellow holocaust survivor Max Rosenbaum (Landau) who sends him on his mission. 

The film then becomes really these kind of curious set pieces as Zev goes about his task and each situation presents him some new challenge whether it be one of the potential suspects of the war criminal, who goes by the name of Rudy Kurlander yet the real one is in fact an Auschwitz commandant by the name of Otto Wallisch. This really breaks the film into two types of scenes, one being the procedure of dealing with his dementia, and the other being the scenes of potential revenge seeking. The dealing with dementia scenes work so well just by how honest Plummer feels in every moment of them. This as Plummer finds in these moments the man being lost and basically finding himself through interacting with others. He's particularly moving by showing the progress of finding himself through these moments. Whether they are the man being completely lost to finding his path just through someone showing him what he needs. There are also the more personal moments where we see Zev as he seems more emotionally despondent. Plummer is great in these moments in creating the immediate sense of urgency as Zev asks for his wife and wonders about those around him. The immediate sense of anxiety is so deeply felt in his delivery, yet what is even more remarkable is the way he conveys Zev calming himself. This moment of kind of a sad realization that those he are looking for are not living, and it is just his memory getting the better of him. 

The other scenes are set up into 4 different scenes of confrontation. The first being with a former German soldier, but not the S.S. officer he was looking for. Plummer projects the approach he will in this scene with this sort of steely eyed determination combined with a certain sloppiness as the man still finding bearings. Plummer makes this seemingly odd combination natural in his manner as he shows the man managing to find his path by fixing upon this singular goal. A goal that he presents with a kind of singular manner when promoting the threat. Each time there is almost a rehearsed quality to it with Zev, this even speaking towards the death of his family, there is almost overly purpose about it. Again this as this point of creating an exact method the man takes to hone himself towards this goal, but also seems like something more. We see this further with the second man, a fellow holocaust victim who reveals himself having been imprisoned for being homosexual. Plummer's performance reveals this kind of generalized kind of sorrow in the man's expression of his family's death even in reaction to this man. It is a real sorrow of some kind however there is this degree of ambiguity in Plummer's performance due to this lack of specificity. The third man though challenges the man seemingly more as he meets the son of the next man, the man having died, however his son being a Neo-Nazi who mistakes Zev as a friend of his father's. 

This man's overt antisemitism throws Zev off however Plummer is incredible in creating this unique state of the fear and anxiety within the situation. This as he speaks towards his Jewishness it still with the man discovering this thought and revealing it as something he needs to hold onto more than anything, even when there isn't a certain specificity. This leading to the final sequence of the film where he comes upon the final man, (Jürgen Prochnow). Plummer is amazing in this scene just from his manner with Prochnow which has initially this innate affability and even camaraderie within their interaction. It is practically instinctual in Plummer work, though just is as the man embraces Plummer revealing himself to being a Nazi commandant but not THE Nazi commandant that Plummer is looking for. Plummer's reaction of disgust to his embrace as he reveals this is with again a kind of conducted disgust of a man who has been implanted a kind of reaction. This of course leading to the film's twist ending SPOILERS that Plummer's Zev was the Nazi commandant all along. This being a twist that I'm sure the screenwriter was very proud of to define the film, though I think makes it all feel a bit trite in overall conception because of it. With the ending being more intended as a "gotcha!" than a genuine resolution to these characters. 

 

Having written all that though, within Plummer's own performance at least he makes it work. This in part to having actually built to it by showing that sort of rehearsed quality intentional to the man who had been conditioned basically to repeat the same lines and believe the same reaction without further depth than that. Plummer leads towards the twist while never undermining his performance. This in creating a man who is largely built upon created memories, however in that there is something genuinely haunted. Plummer playing that ambiguity well throughout, to say whether it alludes to a survivor's guilt or the guilt of a killer. This while also delivering the power within his work in the moment of the realization. This as Plummer becomes the reality sense of distress and despair in the moment. This as contrived as it feels as written, Plummer makes the emotion both honest and potent within his performance. This sense of sudden onset of guilt in the realization is just an astonishing instance in his work, and crafts something special within his own work, even though I don't think the revelation still functions on its own. This speaks to the strength of Plummer's work here overall that I think often deals with repetitive scenes. Again the scenes are either those confrontations or being helped by a random stranger or employee do some, rinse and repeat. What makes the scenes distinct is Christopher Plummer's performance. This in both crafting something natural out of an artificial contrivance, but also just the deftness in every other moment. Every little interaction we get, particularly those with the couple children Zev comes across, are so beautifully acted by Plummer. This as he finds such a genuine poignancy in these little interactions of an old man just trying to find himself, while constantly being lost. Even while the material is not, this is a great performance by Christopher Plummer. Even when the intentions of the film are anything but honesty and truth, Plummer finds them within his quietly powerful and often haunting work.