{"id":8296,"date":"2010-02-22T20:24:05","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T04:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8296"},"modified":"2010-02-22T22:15:11","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T06:15:11","slug":"waiting-for-forever-james-keach-2010-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=8296","title":{"rendered":"Waiting For Forever (James Keach, 2010): US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some films make us laugh, some make us cry, and some films make us do both.\u00a0 James Keach\u2019s Waiting For Forever<\/a><\/em> was surprisingly funny and unexpectedly touching in a non-traditional romantic comedy fashion.\u00a0 Keach takes what we have come to expect from the genre and delivers so much more.\u00a0 Anyone who has suffered a tragedy, had a family, or fallen in love (a.k.a. just about everyone) will find this film immensely personal.<\/p>\n

Generally, romantic comedies follow a certain pattern. Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.\u00a0 Waiting For Forever<\/em> doesn\u2019t violate this pattern; it just pushes the limits showing us the same story in a radically different way.<\/p>\n

The story begins with what we take to be a love struck young man named Willie, played by Tom Sturridge.\u00a0 Willie is on his way to see Emma (Rachel Bilson) who we originally assume is Willie girlfriend.\u00a0 An elderly black couple picks up a hitchhiking Willie.\u00a0 While in the car, Willie goes on to tell his life story.\u00a0 He tells them of the tragic death of his parents and the strength Emma provided for him to help him through the tough times.\u00a0 Despite the tragic nature, the couple in the car makes this scene funny rather than sad.\u00a0 Their mannerisms while listening are hilarious. \u00a0In fact, I was convinced this was a comedy film with the bright lighting, bright color palette, and knee-slapping humor.<\/p>\n

As Willie arrives in his hometown hoping to reunite with Emma, we become aware this story has much more to it than a few jokes.\u00a0 Willie suffers from some mental ailment allowing him to think his parents are always with him.\u00a0 He even speaks to no one periodically, tilting his head to the side and murmuring a few comments.\u00a0 Jim (Scott Mechlowicz), Willie\u2019s older brother, introduces the audience to this problem.\u00a0 He has assumed the father role for Willie and thinks it\u2019s time for some tough love.\u00a0 This is when we become aware that Emma has no clue Willie is in love with her.\u00a0 Actually, she has her own boyfriend and career.\u00a0 If Willie plans on winning the heart of Emma he seriously has to pull his act together.<\/p>\n

The first thing that really jumped out was the dialogue in this film.\u00a0 To put simply, it was brilliant.\u00a0 Just about every line delivered had a dual meaning.\u00a0 If the line didn\u2019t have any dualism then the character\u2019s actions conflicted with the words coming out of their mouth.\u00a0 If they were sad they would say they were happy even though their shoulders would be slouching and their eyes red from crying recently, just too give an example.<\/p>\n

Also, the cinematography and art direction were very well done.\u00a0 The film itself had a dualistic nature.\u00a0 For Willie\u2019s scenes, the picture had a bright palette with lots of shades of gold and amber.\u00a0 For Emma\u2019s scenes, a cool palette with lots of blues and purples dominated the picture.\u00a0 The shooting style also differed.\u00a0 For Willie it was stationary, tripod shots.\u00a0 For Emma it was handheld, rugged shots.\u00a0 Eventually, Willie has an abrupt wake-up call from reality and the styles switch.\u00a0 This is something quite subtle but expertly done.<\/p>\n

Though this is a romantic comedy it is still a very touching film.\u00a0 Traditionally, the most emotional scene is the reunion of the lovers.\u00a0 Instead, Keach relies on the relationship of two brothers to deliver one of the most emotional scenes I have ever witnessed.\u00a0 This may not be true at all, but for those of us who have older brothers would find it impossible to keep dry eyes during this scene.\u00a0 Jim has just paid Willie\u2019s bail and picks him up in a cab outside the police station.\u00a0 Willie realizes life is not always easy and some people actually do terrible, rotten things.\u00a0 Jim is deeply saddened and regrets the harsh things he said.\u00a0 He knows Willie was much better thinking of the world as he did.\u00a0 The emotionality and humanity these two actors portray was too much to handle.\u00a0 At this point I was in serious need of a hug.<\/p>\n

Even if you aren\u2019t enamored with the romantic comedy genre, I still recommend giving this film a try.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t the most artsy film or the film with the best story or best jokes.\u00a0 It just has a little bit of all of these in the right proportion to make a very good film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Nicholas Berquist. \u00a0Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Some films make us laugh, some make us cry, and some films make us do both.\u00a0 James Keach\u2019s Waiting For Forever was surprisingly funny and unexpectedly touching in a non-traditional romantic comedy fashion.\u00a0 Keach takes what we have come to expect from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}