Saturday, March 8, 2014

Endless Love film feels like an endless cliche




Movie Title:   Endless Love

Grade:  D

In a Nutshell:    D for dumb. In the words of the Houston Press movie critic: “Finally, a love story for attractive white people.”  Ha ha  This remake of the 1981 Franco Zeffirelli film about young love features the handsome Alex Pettyfer and lovely Gabriella Wilde who have chemistry on the big screen, but are trapped in a predictable cliché that makes the movie seem endless. Teenage girls will probably think it’s good, which of course, is the target audience. 

The story is about a rich, beautiful girl with no friends.  Right.  The world is full of them.  Lame.   Add in the mean father who doesn’t let the misunderstood beautiful, rich daughter do anything she wants.  Seventeen year olds know what’s best for them. It’s a little bit like the original Footloose without the music or dancing or humor.

Uplifting theme:   Raging hormones prevent you from making wise decisions.  Oh, I mean “Love is worth fighting for.”

Things I liked:
  • I’ve always liked Joely Richardson.  Unfortunately, the writing for her character isn’t very good.  The writing isn’t very good for any of the other characters either.

Things I didn’t like:

  • She goes from being awkward in high school with no social life to meeting this guy and losing her virginity in 2 days.   Aw, true love.

Funny lines:
  •  “You never mentioned that.”  - (David)  The funny thing about that line is David and Jade had just barely met, so of course she hadn’t told him everything about her life yet.
  • “You think she’s real?  A girl looks like that with that much dough?  She can’t be real.  I know these things.”  - Mace
  • “Let’s be young and dumb just for one night.”   Jade – That line made me laugh because they’re both young and have been acting dumb for many nights.

Tips for parents:  One F-bomb, pre-marital relations, marijuana, drinking, and an affair.  The tagline for the movie is “Say goodbye to innocence”, which should be warning enough for parents. 
I never saw the Endless Love (1981) with Brooke Shields, but I hear it was better.

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