Waiting for Forever (James Keach, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Danae Thomas. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Metro 4 Theater.

Waiting for Forever (Steve Adams, 2010) is your everyday typical romance film with animated characters such as Will Donner (Tom Sturridge) who is the underdog that we cheer for throughout the film because he doesn’t judge people and loves everyone. This character alone is what keeps the audience anticipated in our seats because his only job is entertaining other people by juggling for money, he wears pajamas instead of jeans and is naïve because he believes in true love and happiness. It’s because of Will that keeps us appealed as an audience to continue watching, we want to see what he will do next and what will happen to him.

Will Donner is in love with Emma Twist played by (Rachel Bilson) who has been in many episodes of the TV show The O.C. Will and Emma were best friends when they were little kids and when Will’s parents died Emma was there to give him comforting words “they will always love you.” They became separated when Will had to move in with his Aunt and Uncle and has never stopped thinking about Emma. Emma however has moved on with her life by becoming an actress and has an abusive boyfriend. Once Will learns that Emma is coming back to their hometown neighborhood he decides to go back also and tries to gather up courage to let her know how much he loves her.

In the beginning of the film Will is a young innocent boy who believes that Emma and his parents were perfect people and he finds out when Emma first rejects him and his brother explains what kind of people their parents were that life isn’t always a perfect golden world. After the film there was a Q and A and the director said that there are two different worlds going on the golden world where you believe anything’s possible and the people around you are good. Then there’s the blue world where people aren’t what they seem and the world is a hurtful place. Emma develops as a character by coming back home to live with her parents and running into Will again who reminds her how to laugh and enjoy life instead of believing everything is so complicated.

The mise-en-scene makes this film even more exciting with the use of bright colors involved in the beautiful suburban home neighborhood that Will and Emma grew up in. There are gorgeous white houses with bright colored flowers everywhere. The use of high key lighting in this film almost gives the characters an angelic appearance. The costumes were interesting however because Will wears black and white pajamas with a black hat although he does wear a colorful shirt underneath. Emma’s parent’s however wear bright colorful clothing and so does Will’s brother’s family.

This film is worth your time if you enjoy happy films where good things happen to the characters you care about. They do a superior job of making Will the underdog whom everyone cheers for considering all odds are against him for getting the girl of his dreams.