Celeste (Rashida Jones, TV’s Parks and Recreation) and Jesse (Andy Samberg, Hotel Transylvania) are that cute couple – joined at the hip since college, effusive in their affection for each other, and almost nauseating with their inside jokes. Alas, after six years of marriage, their union is no more, despite all appearances to the contrary. Instead, the separated duo have remained the best of friends, with neither choosing to move on. Their unhealthy affinity for each other can only end badly, unless one moves their life in a different direction.
Directed by Lee Toland Krieger (The Vicious Kind) and written by star Jones and actor Will McCormack (also featuring in the film as a well-meaning drug dealer) in a debut screenplay that garnered them an Independent Spirit Award nomination, Celeste and Jesse Forever is a romantic comedy that contemplates what comes next for a couple so connected that they still finish each other’s sentences and meals long after their relationship is over.
In focusing on the end of a happy but mismatched marriage, rather than the first flourishes of love or the solidification of coupledom, the feature happily establishes its fresh perspective. Instead of the usual ‘getting to know each other’ sequences, the film explores the protagonists discovering themselves as separate individuals; in place of the trials and tribulations of forging a life together, it examines the complications of starting a new existence after the dissolution of a planned, shared future.
Though the refreshing approach may not extend to the execution, with convention and cliché seeping into a presentation filled with montages, contrived encounters and other cute rom-com staples, the storyline sustains the film’s point of difference. Filled with warmth and wisdom emanating from the genuine emotion depicted, the feature is poignant as well as pithy, and honest and humorous as it delves into another side of post-marital heartbreak.
Of course, it falls to the characters to sell the story. From the titular duo and their about-to-be-married best friends (Ari Graynor, What’s Your Number? and Eric Christian Olsen, The Thing) to the no-longer-a-couple’s potential new paramours (Rebecca Dayan, Limitless and Argo’s Chris Messina), everyone is complex and convincing. Yet, in the showcase role she crafted for herself, it is Jones who remains the star; her performance, like the film itself, a calling card for bigger things to come.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Celeste and Jesse Forever
Director: Lee Toland Krieger
USA, 2012, 92 min
Now showing in cinemas
Distributor: Disney
Rated M
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