This Valentine’s Day, be prepared to trust the unknown.
Academy Award nominee M. Night Shyamalan’s romantic drama “Remain” released its first trailer, showing what appears on the surface to be a lighthearted romance, only for the cracks to appear.
Remain stars Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal as Tate Donovan, an architect who is grieving the loss of his sister. After being treated for depression, he travels to Cape Cod to design a summer home for a close friend, which is when he meets the mysterious Wren, played by Phoebe Dynevor.
This leads him to begin a relationship with her through a bond that sees him come to grips with the boundaries of love, grief, and a fractured reality that seemingly pulls together the distinctions between life and death.
The film is directed by M. Night Shyamalan is and written and developed alongside the king of the romance genre Nicholas Sparks, who co-developed the screenplay after writing a separate novelisation of the story.
Starring alongside Gyllenhaal and Dynevor are Ashley Walters, Julie Hagerty, Jay O. Sanders, Tracy Ifeachor, Hannah James, Caleb Ruminer, Kieran Mulcare and Maria Dizzia.
The film was originally slated for a Halloween 2026 release date before finalizing its Valentine’s Day premiere. Earlier this year, Shyamalan revealed “Remain” was his highest-testing film of his entire career. He’s directed 16 films, including “The Sixth Sense” and “The Visit,” and has written and produced several other thrillers.
Knowing Shyamalan, his previous films tend to garner intrigue within the trailers, only to fall flat in the second act, with the exception of The Sixth Sense, which he just can’t seem to beat. Following this film, and his other subsequent films, which include Lady in the Water and others, he has struggled to find the form of his initial breakout film. Here’s to hoping that “Remain” breaks the curse.
