Remember Us

CALEB WHEELER (70) retired from the NYPD twenty years ago and has been writing screenplays ever since. He can be forgetful, repeats himself, prefers the seclusion of his grungy fifth floor flat. He fears no one will remember him when he’s gone, that his life has been a meaningless series of squandered opportunities and bad choices. “If there were a hall of fame for losers…” taunts his estranged son Malcolm.
Caleb’s big break finally comes when his autobiographical screenplay “LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT” goes into pre-production. Unfortunately, the new director attached to the project has a problem with the story and wants a rewrite. Caleb knows he has to go to Hollywood to defend his vision, but the thought of flying terrifies him and he doesn’t own a car. When Malcolm loses his job (again) he begrudgingly agrees to drive Caleb across America.
As they drive, Caleb recalls times from his life in 1972 in scenes depicted in LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT. He wrestles with whether the script is an anti-war political piece, or as Malcolm challenges, a love story. A stop at his ex-wife’s double wide in West Virginia plants a seed that Caleb may not actually be Malcolm’s real father. He worries, is he so far gone he doesn’t remember something so basic to who he is.
In Chicago, his millionaire sister Evelyn confronts him with her lifelong disdain for him for walking away from the family business, leaving her with no choice in her own life. Caleb feels her pain and means to give their father a piece of his mind for the way he took advantage of Evelyn. Evelyn fretfully reminds Caleb that their father has been dead for sixteen years.
They stop in Omaha where they meet BRENDA. Brenda was Caleb’s first love. Despite their disparate life histories, a love interrupted in 1972 is rekindled and soon grows to glow like burning coal. Caleb lets Brenda read LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT, the screenplay based on their early years. When she points out that his recollection of what they meant to each other is a mite “squeejawed,” he realizes the major problem with the script. He begins a complete rewrite to tell the true story. With renewed affection and promises to see each other again soon, Caleb leaves Brenda for the second time in fifty years. On to Hollywood. Even though the universe seems to conspire to keep these elder lovers apart, as Brenda puts it; “a second chance at your first love is like finding a pearl in your Oysters Rockefeller.”
When they stop in Denver to visit an old police buddy, Caleb gets word that Brenda has been taken to intensive care. All that matters to him is to be there for her. He flies back to Omaha. By the time he reaches the hospital Brenda is out of the woods, having suffered a mini stroke, but she will be okay. She insists Caleb continue on to his meeting in Los Angeles.
Caleb finally flies to LA, a day late, his rewrite emailed ahead. Everyone loves the script’s change in direction and are eager to begin shooting. Then the Executive Producer gets a call. The financiers for the project have chosen another film and are no longer interested in backing LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT. Disappointed, Caleb sees the bad news as yet another chapter in his life of missed opportunities. Licking his wounds by the hotel pool, Caleb gets a call from his New York neurologist. He has Alzheimer’s.
Six weeks later Caleb languishes in the squalor of this New York apartment. A knock on the door. Brenda. She is not happy. “You said you were all in,” she scolds. Caleb tells her of his diagnosis. It changes nothing. She is there because she loves him and she knows he loves her. As she cleans his apartment she explains that love at their age is about sharing your life with someone, someone to beat back the loneliness, someone to take care of, someone who’ll take care of you. Tears, then a soft kiss, an easy breath on long faded embers. A flame flares. They rise together, hand in hand to the bedroom.
In their blissful after-glow, Caleb’s phone chimes. It is his agent. LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT is back on. Caleb’s sister Evelyn has agreed to finance the film.

REMEMBER US is similar to “The Notebook” in that it chronicles the love between Caleb and Brenda as twenty year olds (seen through Caleb’s screenplay) and as they close in on seventy.