Phil Coldiron March 3, 2011
FORGET ME NOT The debut feature of co-directors Alexander Holt and Lance Roehrig following two shorts made together, Forget Me Not is a two-hander in the vein of Linklater's Before films. Guy (Tobias Menzies) meets girl (Genevieve O'Reilly) after a mugging attempt forces him to abort his plans of suicide to run and save her. Thanks to a series of narrative conveniences, they're forced to wander London all night; love is born. We know he's a troubled artist because of the guitar he carries and the grave, puckered expression that seems to be the only one he's capable of making; she balances this moodiness by batting her eyes and swinging her arms when she walks. Menzies and O'Reilly have an effortless chemistry together in off-the-cuff scenes, like the lengthy one where they playfully discuss their sexual histories, but they can't do much to salvage the humorless emoting and philosophizing on the nature of death that makes up most of Forget Me Not's second half. Writers Rebecca Long, Steve Spence and Mark Underwood have concocted a rigid scenario that's so neat and tidy it ensures that nothing like real life could ever get in, and Holt and Roehrig knock Menzies and O'Reilly like pinballs through London's most obvious attractions (the London Eye, the Millennium and London bridges). Still, Menzies and O'Reilly crackle when the script gets out of their way, and a bad imitation of Before Sunrise is better than most of what passes for a romance film these days. (Phil Coldiron) (Culver Plaza)