Alex and Eve (Peter Andrikidis, 2015): Australia

Reviewed by Hans Patrik Joensson, Santa Barbara, 2016. Fiesta Theater.

Alex and Eve is Australia’s try on making a Hollywood film. With the right cameras and somewhat the right script, Alex and Eve is trying really hard to be one of the many, cheesy Hollywood films. I do think that this film is worth seeing (even though you might cringe once in a while) because of the feel-good theme going on straight through the movie. What I thought was interesting about the movie was that you got confused with the mixed mise-en-scene going on, how the mother (as in the picture above) had a red veil symbolizing warmth and caring meanwhile she was the straight opposite in my eyes.

The directing and the acting were good at most parts put the thing that made the whole movie cheesy and not the real experience that you want out of a film was the obvious jokes and the lack of improvisation. You could feel how the actors (even though they were mostly good) were reading straight from a script and you got some kind of plastic and fake feeling from it.

The movie is about a guy named Alex and a girl named Eve. Alex is from a greek family and Eve is a Muslim. Even though their families does not approve, we follow Alex and Eve’s story on how to prove that they’re actually good for each other. The theme of the movie is that love has no religion and that love concurs everything. The most important scene in the film is when their families are meeting for the first time. You see the contrasts between the different cultures and how the parents clearly does not get along.

The best part of the film is how much time they must have put down to do the movie. It is a professional production with a really expensive camera.

This film is like most films about love and how it can be both tragic and wonderful. One film that came in mind was Brooklyn and how that story also is about forbidden love and how to make your parents proud.