Review of Endless Love (2014) by Adam P — 06 Jul 2014

I've always had a soft spot in my critical mind for romantic movies. Honestly, I find it quit difficult to dislike the romance genre, they're always so enjoyable for me. Happy, a term coined for films, but isn't always the case. This film made me happy, and if I wasn't a film critic and just a common movie watcher I'd probably would've given it a 3 1/2 star rating same as 'About Time', but this film when viewed critically isn't very good. It isn't. As enjoyable as it is, I have to set aside my personal genre pleasures and see what the film holds as a whole. It doesn't hold a lot. This is a remake. Remakes have always been meant to only be made when the original film was a disaster, but that has never been the case, ever. I've viewed few films that I could say are better than the originals such as 'Dredd', 'True Grit', and 'The Thing'. Those three films are among a meager amount of remakes I deem better then they're originals. And 'Endless Love' is better than the original. And that's not really setting the bar high, as the original 1981 film was complete garbage. This film makes up for that one, but still is no success story as a whole. My review of 'Endless Love'.

'Endless Love' follows Jade Butterfield (newcomer Gabriella Wilde) a highly intelligent, rich, yet socially outcasted girl whose high school years were spent in studies. She has her whole life planned out by her parents (Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson) who expect her to attend medical school. She does well in high school and plans to go to an internship for a job in the medical field. Then she meet's David Elliot (Alex Pettyfier) a mechanic's son, who doesn't plan on going to college even with his high grades. They soon fall in love much to the dismay of Jade's father (Greenwood) who immediately dislikes David and seeks to tear him out of Jade's life no matter what.

Honestly, 'Endless Love' is a very predictable, underwhelming film. The original, as much as I loathed it, had some pretty good themes in it. However watching this one, it can't help to feel water downed and overly sweet. The script supplies way too many overly clichéd snippets of cringe worthy dialogue, and fast passes the romantic endure of Jade and David. It can't help but feel unrealistic, it happens too fast.

The characters of Jade and David are well supported with a group of talented actors. 'Alex Pettyfier'' who always seems to be seeked out for these roles, yet almost always denies them does a top notch job with what meager he is given. He makes best of what little he has. 'Gabriella Wilde' is a very pretty young lady, and a big sense of realisms to the film, though I just feel that she may have been a bit too pretty. But she does well work with her clichéd one dimensional character. Pettyfier and Wilde also share good enough chemistry to make this film somewhat bearable. And who doesn't love 'Bruce Greenwood'? Nuff said.

Watching this you can't help but feel bored. The film is overly predictable been there seen that. Same one dimensional stereotypical characters, same love story. Nothing added makes you feel any extra ump. You don't truly become attached to the movie the way it wants you to. I blame the screenwriter for the big fault the film holds. He gives us a huge abundance of under developed characters, a ton of clichéd dialogue, and a story requiring little thought. It's seriously as if the studio hired a 13 year old girl to write the script. That's what it feels like.

The music helps a bit to at least get into the romantic mood. It's sweet, catchy, and get's you happy. It adds to emotions when it has to.

All and All 'Endless Love' let's down the reliable cast with a overly predictable story filled with clichéd under developed characters. D+ 5/30/14.

While I enjoyed the film and my own uncritical opinion would have warranted a C rating (3 stars) that is not what a critic does.

'Endless Love' is rated PG-13 for sexual content, brief partial nudity, some language, and teen partying. It's appropriate for teens and up.