Waiting For Forever ( James Keach, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Khristine Biver.  Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010.

Waiting For Forever is an aggressively uncomfortable movie.  The main character, Will Donner, played by Tom Sturridge, attacks you with flowery language that would make most poets roll their eyes with all the blatant imagery.  Unfortunately, you’re subject to this for almost 120 minutes.  Rachel Bilson’s plays Emma Twist, as the actress returning home to visit her ailing father is reminiscent of her days on The O.C., which is to say, it felt fake and she had a hard time expressing real emotion.  The supporting cast was equally unbearable, highlighted by Blythe Danner’s as the hysterical mother, who was cringe-worthy at best.  Director James Keach should stick to directing episodes of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.  He is perfectly suited to the short form of TV, creating film that has about 20 minutes of actual content, and about 100 minutes of transitions and awkwardly played out conversations.

The movie is just another romance with one happy-go-lucky character and another disenfranchised with the whole idea of love.  A vagabond that chases love, throwing caution to the wind, and with it, his life.  Waiting For Forever plays out every stereotype it can, and seems to invent them as well.  This paired with an obnoxious visual style and an almost more obnoxiously stereotypical support cast makes Waiting For Forever an uncomfortable, and quite literal movie experience.

The entire movie was an exercise in patience, and played out just like a cheap knock-off of “Benny and Joon”, only Joon never shows up, and your Buster Keaton character finds a way to be even simpler than Johnny Depp’s version.  The movie overshot heartwarming and ended up in clichéd and unbearable.