Miss You Already

For F*** Magazine

MISS YOU ALREADY

Director : Catherine Hardwicke

Cast : Drew Barrymore, Toni Collette, Dominic Cooper, Paddy Considine, Tyson Ritter, Mem Ferda, Jacqueline Bisset, Frances de la Tour

Genre : Drama

Run Time : 113 mins

Opens : 5 November 2015

Rating : NC-16 (Some Sexual Scenes)

The course of true BFF-ship never did run smooth, and in this comedy-drama, Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore play best friends who weather thick and thin together. Milly (Collette) and Jess (Barrymore) have been the closest of pals since childhood, when Jess’ family moved from the US to the UK. Milly marries former rock band roadie Kit (Cooper) and the two go on to have two kids together. Jess settles down with construction engineer Jago (Considine) and the two are trying for a baby. A spanner is thrown in the works when Milly discovers she has breast cancer. As those around her, including Jess, Kit and Milly’s mother Miranda (Bisset) try to help out in any way they can, the time-tested bond between Jess and Milly undergoes considerable strain. Will the besties conquer all?

Miss You Already is adapted for the screen by Morwenna Banks from her own BBC Radio play. The radio play has a spoiler-tastic title, so we shan’t print it here (and don’t go looking for it if you haven’t seen the movie yet). It’s very easy to be cynical about Miss You Already – it’s a story about a cancer patient and her best friend and has drawn inevitable comparisons to the likes of legendary chick flicks Beaches and Steel Magnolias. Now, “chick flick” isn’t an appellation and it’s perfectly fine for a film to be made with the intention of getting its audience to get all misty-eyed. Director Catherine Hardwicke is cognisant of the pre-conceived notions one might go into Miss You Already with and attempts to walk the tightrope between subverting the tropes of the weepie movie subgenre and playing them straight. This is mostly successful. 

There is the great danger of the film coming across as a blatantly hokey “Lifetime movie of the week” affair. At the same time, one wouldn’t want it to be too bleakly mundane. Miss You Already does stick to many of the established traits of comedy-dramas centring on someone battling a terminal illness, but it carries nary a shred of self-importance and as such is easy to get involved in. The recent comedy drama 50/50 took a down-to-earth, gently humorous look at dealing with cancer, and while the situations in Miss You Already are more outlandish, the approach is along those lines. Many of the jokes do land, and the comedy functions as a way of cushioning the blow of the devastation that comes with a condition like breast cancer. It doesn’t feel like the film is forcing us to laugh at something that inherently just isn’t funny, and that’s a point in its favour. 

Miss You Already’s coup is its casting, since if Milly and Jess come across as actual lifelong friends, half the battle is won. Milly and Jess are distinct enough without being polar opposites; it’s a relief that the film doesn’t take the “one’s buttoned-up and the other’s a flighty free spirit!” approach. Collette does most of the dramatic heavy lifting and her performance is as entertaining as it is affecting. We get the sense that this is a woman who loves having fun and does have a real zest for life, so we’re rooting for her in spite of some very questionable decisions she makes. Collette’s comic timing is on point, and both she and Barrymore consciously avoid over-the-top joke delivery styles. Barrymore’s Jess is the more stable and dependable of the two, having to be the unwavering pillar of support throughout Milly’s ordeal and Barrymore is understated and appealing in the role. There’s even a reference to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which this reviewer found especially amusing. 

Both Cooper and Considine make for fine significant others to Collette and Barrymore, with Considine in particular turning in what might the movie’s most realistic performance. Each has to “share” his wife with her best friend, but they become friends in the process and it is heart-warming to see them all hanging out together and enjoying each other’s company. Bisset, fabulous as always, is a complete and utter hoot as Milly’s feisty actress mother. 

Miss You Already is by no means a realistic movie – there’s a subplot involving Milly dragging a pregnant Jess along on a spur-of-the-moment road trip to Brontë Country, the setting of their favourite book Wuthering Heights. However, by the time the film closes in on the tear ducts, it has largely earned that and the characters feel sufficiently developed and relatable. Miss You Already’s formulaic aspects are easy to forgive, because director Hardwicke and writer Banks have mostly put them to good use. 

Summary: While partaking in its share of clichés, this story of two friends manages to be funny and moving thanks in no small part to enjoyable, engaging performances from its leads.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

Begin Again

For F*** Magazine

BEGIN AGAIN

Director : John Carney

Cast : Mark Ruffalo, Keira Knightley, Adam Levine, Hailee Steinfeld, Mos Def, James Corden, CeeLo Green, Catherine Keener

Genre : Drama, Romance

Opens : 3 July 2014

Rating : NC16 (Coarse Language) 

Running time: 104 mins

Lovin’ a music man ain’t always what it’s supposed to be, and that goes for the music men behind the scenes as well. In this musical romantic comedy, Mark Ruffalo plays Dan Mulligan, the down-and-out exec of music label Distressed Records, who has an estranged wife (Keener) and daughter (Steinfeld). While drowning his sorrows at a bar one night, British singer-songwriter Gretta (Knightley) catches his attention and he immediately sets about getting a hold of her so they can collaborate on a record. It turns out that Gretta’s long-time boyfriend and songwriting partner Dave Kohl (Levine) has strayed after letting stardom get to his head. Gretta tries to leave Dave behind as she, Dan, her best friend Steve (Corden) and a motley crew of session musicians embark on recording an album on the streets of New York, guerrilla-style.

            Begin Again, formerly titled Can a Song Save Your Life?, is written and directed by John Carney of Once fame. The micro-budget Irish indie flick became a cult favourite after netting a Best Original Song Oscar for Falling Slowly and was adapted into an acclaimed musical running on Broadway and the West End. Begin Again can be seen as Carney “going Hollywood”, trading in a cheap video camera for a fancy Red Digital and having Hollywood names and pop stars in the cast. While Begin Again is certainly a glossier, slicker affair, it still retains a good measure of earnestness and sweetness and is sure to appeal to fans of music movies. In what might be somewhat meta commentary, the theme of “indie vs. big record label” crops up. There’s also a rather surprising bit of anti-product placement: Dan takes a sip of Pepsi and wonders aloud “God damn, how do people drink that?!”

            Many of the elements in Begin Again can be described as “formulaic” – there’s the maverick music producer who has been reduced to an unkempt mess but who gets a second wind upon discovering an ingénue, the disapproving ex-wife and the rebellious daughter and the ingénue’s unfaithful rock star boyfriend. An early scene has a frustrated Dan tossing demo CDs out of his car window, fed up with inane pop and in search of “real music”. However, the film does possess enough self-awareness such that it doesn’t drown in a morass of clichés and that there’s a still a soul to it. Carney also has a little fun with the structure of the first half of the film, starting in medias res before rewinding to the start of that day, telling the story from Dan’s point of view – and then rewinding further and telling it from Gretta’s. There’s also a wonderfully whimsical moment of visual invention, when upon first hearing Gretta sing, Dan begins to imagine possible arrangements for the song; the piano, drums, cello and violin sitting on stage suddenly playing by themselves in his imagination.

            Mark Ruffalo is pretty much scruffy-sexy incarnate. Once again, he looks like he badly needs a shower and a shave, but perhaps that is part of his charm. He convincingly essays a man who has fallen on hard times but who clearly once had drive and inspiration, and when that returns to him he comes alive again. Keira Knightley’s role was originally intended for Scarlett Johansson – while we don’t get the Hulk and Black Widow making sweet music together, Knightley is a perfectly acceptable substitute. Her singing voice is very pleasant and she consciously avoids turning Gretta into an idealised “manic pixie dream girl” type. When she says “I’m not Judy Garland off the greyhound bus looking for stardom”, this reviewer believes her – but wants to see her make it in the music biz all the same.

            When it comes to the casting of established singers like Adam Levine and his fellow The Voice coach CeeLo Green, it’s a Catch-22 situation: on one hand, having actual musicians in your music movie gives it credibility but on the other, it can be distracting enough to pull one out of the experience. Green’s appearance in the film is more tolerable because as hip-hop star and old pal of Dan’s nicknamed Troublegum, he could well be playing himself. However, Levine is not a brilliant actor and this reviewer happens to find his high-pitched whine of a singing voice somewhat grating. We’re also 90% sure that the name “Dave Kohl” is some kind of a dig at the similarly-named Foo Fighters frontman.

            Begin Again is a great date movie because it isn’t yet another a production line rom com and it never becomes unbearably cheesy and sappy. It won’t redefine the music flick genre, but it does have its share of sweet moments. The songs, co-written by New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander with Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Rick Nowels and Nick Southwood, Once star Glen Hansard and Carney himself, are all very listenable if not especially memorable or catchy. And this is quite possibly the first movie to make splitter cables seem like very romantic objects.

SUMMARY: Begin Again’s formulaic elements are offset by its measured sweetness and charm.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Enough Said

For F*** Magazine

ENOUGH SAID

Director: Nicole Holofcener
Cast:  Julia Louis-Dreyfus, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener, Toni Collette, Ben Falcone, Eve Hewson, Tavi Gevinson, Tracey Fairaway
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 93 mins
Opens: 7 November 2013
Rating: PG13 (Some Sexual References)

          Over the years, “chick flicks” have gotten a bad rap. Sure, classics like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Terms of Endearment probably are considered chick flicks, but recent entries in this film genre headlined by the Katherine Heigls and the Kate Hudsons of the world aren’t exactly examples of quality cinema. Adjectives like “shallow”, “materialistic”, “frivolous” and “saccharine” come to mind. Well, if you’ve grown weary of films like that, Enough Said is the romantic comedy-drama for you.

Eva (Louis-Dreyfus) is a hardworking massage therapist who has found a new client in the form of Marianne (Keener), a poet. They form a friendship over the course of several massage sessions, and Eva notices that Marianne persists in speaking disparagingly about her ex-husband. Eva is a divorcee herself, and embarks upon a relationship with Albert (Gandolfini), an oafish but charming television history archivist. At the same time, Eva’s daughter Ellen (Fairaway) is about to leave for college, and Eva just doesn’t know if she can cope. She also inadvertently draws closer to Ellen’s friend Chloe (Gevinson), drawing the ire of her own daughter. Once Eva starts picking up on Albert’s little idiosyncrasies, their relationship begins to strain and Eva must get a grip not only as a masseuse, but in her personal life as well.

 

It’s always nice to see a romantic film with a cast that isn’t populated entirely by idealized, impossibly beautiful 20-somethings. Films like Something’s Gotta Give and last year’s Hope Springs that skew towards those of a certain vintage do indeed have something a lot of films about young, reckless love lack. In Enough Said, the characters tackle a mid-life romance from a place of experience, their struggles and foibles well-developed and immensely relatable. The film’s sweet, grounded nature makes it very palatable; there aren’t outrageous slapstick set pieces or wacky hijinks. A good part of the film is just people sitting on steps, talking – that’s even the image used for the poster.

Now, a movie consisting mostly of people sitting on steps and talking might sound boring, but Enough Said draws one into the relationships it depicts and proves entirely engaging, thanks to Nicole Holofcener’s screenplay and direction. Her films, which include Walking and Talking, Lovely & Amazing and Friends with Money, have garnered praise for their approach to romance and relationships. Evident in those films and very much so in Enough Said is Holofcener’s understanding of the feelings and concerns women face; something ironically lacking from a good deal of chick flicks.

A film of this sort live or dies by whether the audience is willing to accept its leads as a couple – no need for concern here. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini are wonderful together. She handles the role of the funny everywoman with ease, putting on an array of hilarious expressions whenever a reaction to something is required. Gandolfini is probably best-known as the imposing Mafioso Tony Soprano, but he embodies the gentler, loveable Albert just as well. Albert isn’t the stereotypically “perfect” rom com leading man, but that definitely adds to the believability of the character and Gandolfini brings a lot of heart to the role. Quite touchingly, the simple dedication “for Jim” appears during the end credits.

Holofcener’s oft-collaborator Catherine Keener is also good as the poet Marianne. The character definitely has the potential to come off as snooty or unlikeable, what with her perfectly put-together home, penchant for growing her own chervil and, well, her being a poet – but Keener never plays that up and you’ll genuinely want Eva and Marianne to stay friends. Toni Collette is a hoot in her uncomplicated role as Eva’s friend Sarah, who doesn’t hide her disdain for sheepish, malapropism-prone husband Will (Falcone). The young actresses who round out the cast, including Tracey Fairaway, Eve Hewson and teenage fashion magazine editor Tavi Gevinson (who bears quite the resemblance to Scarlett Johansson) make for realistic teen characters, never overly sulky or insufferable.

Holofcener’s mastery of tone is also admirable. Oftentimes, romantic comedies tumble wildly into ungainly melodramatic territory. Here, the film’s dip into relationship troubles and empty nest worries doesn’t feel like an arm-twisting and even then, Enough Said stays a safe distance from being sappy and emotionally manipulative. Perhaps it helps that the film doesn’t fall over itself trying to “upend the formula”, and that it’s lovingly painted instead of scrawled on the wall by a cynic. The setup may sound rather sitcom-ish, some might perceive it as "mundane" and perhaps there is a predictability to the proceedings, but Enough Said emerges as one of the finest romantic comedies in recent memory.

SUMMARY: Subtle, sweet, honest, relatable funny and very well-acted by two convincing, likeable leads, Enough Said is also a terrific movie to remember the late James Gandolfini by.

RATING: 4 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong 

I Give It a Year

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

I GIVE IT A YEAR

2013

Starring: Rafe Spall, Rose Byrne, Simon Baker, Anna Faris

Directed by: Dan Mazer

            Much as we’ve been told not to, it’s human nature to jump to conclusions. There’s just a lot of satisfaction in yelling out “called it!” when events unfold just as one has predicted. For example, it’s easy to look at a film and write it off based on its genre – and there have indeed been numerous stinkers from the chick flick bunch. Along comes I Give It a Year to stab the institution of marriage in its side.

            The film tells the story of corporate high-flyer Nat (Byrne) and struggling novelist Josh (Spall), who marry after a whirlwind seven-month-long courtship. Nat’s older sister Naomi (Minnie Driver), herself stuck in an unhappy marriage, reckons that Nat and Josh will stay married for a year at the longest – hence the title. The lead couple’s union is tested by Josh’s ex-girlfriend Chloe (Faris) and Nat’s business client Guy (Baker), both of whom seem to be better matches for Josh and Nat respectively. “If you can make it through the first year of marriage, you can make it through anything,” Josh’s father reassures him. But once they’re over that twelve month hurdle, it’s plain sailing. Right?

            I Give It a Year is writer-director Dan Mazer’s feature film directing debut. He’s best known for co-writing Ali G Indahouse, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Brüno with Sacha Baron Cohen – as such, one can expect a romantic comedy with a fair bit more bite. The film isn’t aiming to be a feel-good date movie, but it is aiming at the funny bone and more often than not, hits a bull’s-eye. A film about marital trials and tribulations could have easily become a little heavy, but Mazer keeps the gags flying thick and fast.

            The film seems to exist in a world where nobody has much tact, and there is a fair bit of cringe comedy in store. Comedian Stephen Merchant, as Josh’s friend Dan, starts the ball rolling with a very inappropriate best man’s speech at the wedding. The movie goes on to offer up doves flying into ceiling fans, an awkward game of charades, an inept marriage counsellor preoccupied with her anatomically-correct dolls, a look at the myriad logistical challenges of having a threesome and arguments about misheard song lyrics. Not all the jokes work, but there are just so many of them and by the end, a good amount of laughs were generated. While several of the gags are indeed pretty raunchy, they’re never over-the-top vulgar or (too) tasteless.

            The film attempts to shirk rom-com conventions by presenting audiences with a central couple whose relationship is not meant to be really compelling, and that’s a gamble that doesn’t fully pay off. Rafe Spall and Rose Byrne don’t generate a lot of chemistry and aren’t all that likeable, but then again that might be the point. That’s not to say they don’t put in good performances – Spall in particular appears to relish the chance to goof off with some drunken dancing. Once Chloe and Guy enter the scene, it becomes harder to root for Nat and Josh to stay together, which means Anna Faris and Simon Baker do their jobs. The film’s third act takes a dip into more dramatic territory, but Mazer always keep an eye on the laughs, so there are no jarring tonal shifts. The film also gets a little cluttered with supporting characters and side gags at times.

            I Give It a Year’s biggest strength is that it manages to strike a decent balance between the cynical humour, relationship drama and big comedic set-pieces. It’s definitely on the acerbic side, but the British film manages to retain a small amount of charm and while it borders on mean, it’s never alienating. Above all, it does draw out the laughs.

SUMMARY: A contemporary look at early married life dosed with the comedic stylings of Borat’s partner in crime – it works for those who have been jaded by mawkish rom-coms and could do with a little edge in their “chick flick”.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong

           

Ruby Sparks

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

Movie Review                                                                                                             12/9/12

RUBY SPARKS

2012

Starring: Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Chris Messina

Directed by: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

            All writers know that there’s nothing quite as intimidating as a blank page – this reviewer is faced with one right now. Even the most prolific of writers can get bad cases of writer’s block induced by nothing more than a little white space, and prodigious young novelist Calvin Weir-Fields (Dano) is no exception. At the age of 19, he shot to the top of the New York Times Bestsellers list and captured the imagination of the public, but has had a hard time matching his success in the intervening ten years. His therapist Dr Rosenthal (Elliot Gould) gives him a simple writing assignment to get him going.

            That night, Calvin has a dream in which a beautiful, quirky young woman named Ruby (Kazan) approaches him in the park while he’s walking his dog, and offers to do a drawing of Calvin’s pet pooch. Inspired, he awakes the next morning and writes away. Gradually and inexplicably, personal effects of some non-existent woman pop up in his house, as discovered by Calvin’s concerned brother Harry (Messina) and Harry’s wife Susie (Toni Trucks). Then, the utterly impossible happens – Ruby, the woman who had hitherto only been a product of Calvin’s imagination, materializes before him. Calvin has to come to grips with this absurd turn of events, questioning his sanity and making his brother even more worried, when he realises that whatever he types on his page, Ruby will manifest. In other words (heh), Calvin now has the perfect girlfriend all to himself – but the situation may not be as ideal as he’s imagined once reality sets in. 

            This fantasy romantic comedy-drama is helmed by the same directing duo famous for Little Miss Sunshine, so one can get a rough idea as to the offbeat, gently humourous and quirkily intelligent tone. Ruby Sparks was written by Ruby herself, Zoe Kazan, and boy did she do an amazing job as both scribe and leading lady. Directors Dayton and Faris have helped Kazan handcraft a true masterpiece, a film that completely took this reviewer by surprise in how profound and moving it ended up being. On the surface, this looks like a fun little flick with a fantastical premise, sort of Stranger than Fiction meets Pygmalion. There are indeed laughs aplenty to be derived from Calvin’s extremely peculiar predicament, and from how Ruby can be bent to his will at a mere keystroke.

            However, beneath that bubbly surface lies Kazan’s eloquent meditation on the process of writing, the process of falling in love, how the two intersect, and the moral and ethical implications of having complete control over one’s partner. The film expertly eases the audience from the lighter stuff into the psychological drama, and there is a truly intense confrontation at the film’s climax that one completely would not expect, yet it does not feel out of place in the slightest. As an aspiring writer and a hopeless romantic, the film struck this reviewer to the core, its observations ringing clear as a bell in spite (or perhaps because of) its outlandish jumping-off point. Even with the element of fantasy, this film never resorts to caricatures or broad strokes; even Calvin’s hippie mother and her new boyfriend (played by Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas respectively, enjoyable in their small roles) aren’t made out to be like Barbara Streisand and Dustin Hoffman’s similarly-characterised roles in Meet the Fockers. There’s a deftness, an elegance to the way the whole thing is handled, one example being a seemingly throwaway gag involving Ruby speaking French, which gets an impactful payoff at the end. All this may come off as pretentiously hipster to some, but is actually very refreshing amidst the sea of production-line, puerile comedies Hollywood seems to be churning out like butter these days, and not once does the film feel smug.

            Paul Dano, a Little Miss Sunshine alum, has yet to truly hit the big time – but judging from his performance as Calvin, he definitely deserves to. He is believable and likable to a fault as the awkward writer, and he never overplays Calvin’s ineptness as actors tasked with playing characters of this sort often do. When Calvin’s darker side creeps to the surface during the afore-mentioned climactic confrontation, Dano is absolutely riveting in that display of acting range. Kazan actually bests him a tad, probably because she wrote the part of Ruby for herself to play. They have incredible chemistry, likely a result of the actors’ real life romantic involvement with each other. Ruby is essentially a deconstruction of that ever-present “manic pixie dream girl” trope, embodied by such actresses as Zooey Deschanel and Krysten Ritter. Ruby can be all doe-eyed and kooky, but can switch personality traits at the drop of a hat, thanks to Calvin’s control over her. It’s engrossing to watch Kazan play the puppet of sorts, a woman unaware that she is actually nothing more than a figment of her boyfriend’s imagination come to life – and even more interesting to see Ruby assert her own identity when push comes to shove.

            Ruby Sparks is, to put it plainly, one of the very best romantic comedies this reviewer has ever seen. It almost defiantly breaks free of the mould of gratingly commercial ‘chick flicks’, instead serving up some rather deep ideas cloaked in a ‘what if?’ comedy, it’s artfully-lensed and brought to vivid life by its very capable leads. Just as Ruby leaps off the page and into Calvin’s life, so this film will very likely leap off the screen and into the hearts of many a viewer.

SUMMARY: An intriguing premise, skillfully-written screenplay, intelligent direction, compelling performances and unexpectedly thought-provoking philosophical undertones turn this Spark into a brightly-glowing flame.

RATING: 4.5/5 STARS

Jedd Jong

           

Quoted!

Hooray! Best thing ever.

Forever

我爱你爱你爱你(FOREVER) 2011 

Starring: Joanna Dong, Mo Tzu Yi, Sarah Ng Li-Wen 

Directed by: Wee Li Lin

Singapore Film Commission/Bobbing Buoy Films/ Add Oil Films/ Iceberg Design

        Everyone’s heard of the phrase “Always a bridesmaid but never a bride”. This Chinese-language, Singapore-made romantic-comedy attempts to tell the tale of a woman who is “always a bride”, but also “never the bride”. It’s an interesting place to start – but be warned, this movie doesn’t turn out to be all champagne, bouquets and diamond rings.

Joey (Dong) is a woman who acts in “instructional videos” for the Wedding Education Department (WED), performing idealised and romantic scenarios for television commercials promoting the services of the matchmaking agency. Her co-star in these videos is Gin (Mo), a dashing Taiwanese musician and music teacher, who handles his professional responsibilities and social life with charming ease.

The lines between make-believe play acting and reality blur for Joey as she begins to develop a crush on Gin, and as she quickly unravels, morphing from dreamy-eyed admirer to a stalker with a psychotic streak. She quickly targets Gin’s fiancée, the lusty rich-girl-with-daddy-issues Cecilia (Ng Li-Wen) and sets about sabotaging their relationship. However, nice guy that he is, Gin tries his best to deal with the awkward and frightening situation as calmly as possible, even as his loving Mum (Chen Hui-Mei), Dad (David Loo) and Joey’s early-onset-dementia-suffering mother (Yoo Ya Min) get drawn into the fray. What’s a guy to do?

I desperately wanted to enjoy this film, and the early scenes do a decent job of setting up the somewhat-original jumping off point for the story. The bureaucratic nature of the WED organization makes for a few good chuckles, with their slogans such as “Loneliness kills; WED saves”, advising men to turn up their collars as it looks more attractive, and their use of facial recognition software to determine the compatibility of two would-be partners relatively amusing.

However, it’s not long before one quickly ticks off a whole checklist of clichés, contrivances and lazy storytelling tricks often associated with the romantic-comedy genre. The bland and generic translated title of the film should have been my first clue – the original Mandarin title translates directly to ILoveYouLoveYouLoveYou, which, silly as it sounds, works better than Forever. The film quickly drifts farther and farther away from the Democratic Republic of the Plausible, towards the Island of the Ridiculous – and when this reviewer wanted to stop following that boat and swim back, it was too late, and the savage inhabitants of the Island of the Ridiculous were hungry and waiting.

Instead of using the most common rom-com trope, which is to set up the leads as fierce rivals and have them quickly fall for each other, this flick settles for the second most common one: one party obsessed and starry-eyed, the other cool and unattainable, set on a collision course with a speed bump in the form of a third party standing in the way.

The characters are all decidedly flat and one note. At first, female lead and former Singapore Idol contestant Joanna Dong seems to be channeling the kooky sweetheart vibe defined by such stars as Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts. However, she quickly leaps right off the deep end, making the odd, peculiar and creepily desperate antics of Sandra Bullock’s character in the awful All About Steve look positively restrained. Even that film had the line "If you love someone, set him free; if you have to stalk him, he probably wasn't yours in the first place" – a concept that Joey does not understand, and probably never will.

           Keeping a stash of Gin’s childhood photographs, creating fantasy PowerPoint presentations for her “wedding” with him, squealing “Iloveyouloveyouloveyou!” into the phone, indulging in idealised and preposterous fantasies of their would-be romance, enacting a gender-flipped Romeo-and-Juliet-style balcony scene outside his house and enlisting the help of Gin’s bewildered chamber music students to help her woo him number among Joey’s wacko manifestations. I’m glad that an axe didn’t somehow wander into frame, because Joey did look like she was intent on having Gin “fall to pieces” in more ways than one. It’s a pity as Dong shows potential as a likable actress, but the screenplay does her no favours.

          Gin is essentially the perfect man: kind, thoughtful, intelligent, romantic, musical, great with kids, and the son of nice parents – not to mention very handsome. Taiwanese actor-singer Mo Tzu Yi’s matinee-idol pulchritude actually becomes one of many nails in the coffin for the movie– one needs only remember that Charlize Theron won her Oscar for playing a real-life serial killer in Monster, and not for playing the eponymous futuristic, sexy secret agent in Æon Flux. Mo valiantly attempts to muster up all the comedic timing he possesses, but the character of Gin doesn’t end up being the composed yang to Joey’s crazy yin – he just ends up being stiff. When Gin tearfully confides in his mother that he’s never been lucky in love, it feels as real as if Bill Gates were to sob about money woes.
 
The supporting cast provides more laughs than both leads combined, really. Model and first-time film actress Sarah Ng Li-Wen inhabits the role of the sexy, wild and whiny Cecilia with much aplomb, even though the script gives her nothing really to do. Chen Hui-Mei and David Loo, as Gin’s parents, actually steal the show. Loo is a hoot as the good-natured but cantankerous dad, at one point likening the taste of Pandan cake to “coconut-flavoured toothpaste”, and plays off Chen, the sole source of any emotion in the picture, pretty well.

The kids in Gin’s chamber music class provide the only semblance of believability, Kenny Gee (unrelated to the saxophonist) is mildly amusing as a Goth-obsessed, rival wedding videographer, and there are surprise cameos from “controversial” pageant princess Ris Low and pre-eminent theatre doyen Dr KK Seet – but all this is like trying to flood a desert with a 500 ml bottle of mineral water.

Tonally, the film suffers. It’s nowhere near as bad as in much of Jack Neo’s work – there was a scene where a character attempts suicide in the middle of his otherwise cheesy and over-the-top comedy I Do I Do – but it is still unable to find a footing. It teeters haphazardly between high-comedy and high-drama and tries to stuff in an element of satire at the same time. When complemented by Director of Photography Gerard Stahlmann’s slow dolly shots, soft focus-filled idyllic fairytale vision of Singapore, it is a very disorienting experience. The film is also smug, employing visual gags such as parallel messages on a graffiti wall and on a banner hanging in the WED office, but none of it really works. I’m not even going to start on the exploitation of mental health issues for comedy.

Watching these films is a dangerous experience – I was running and trying to avoid the anvils falling from the sky. Subtlety seems like a foreign concept, and Forever ends up feeling like a song with a catchy melody, but with the chorus shouted instead of sung. Yes, the film is definitely not completely awful – watching it felt less like a painful eye infection, and more like a skin rash. It is marginally better than most entries in the increasingly-less-funny stable of romantic comedies from both Hollywood and the local scene, but in the end is more apt as a description of what cringing through the movie felt like, than as its title.

RATING: 2/5 STARS

Jedd Jong