Monday, February 15, 2010

SBIFF: Booze and Waiting for Forever-Day Two Recap

BOOZE


We got up Sunday afternoon with these intentions: Mimosa Brunch, CRAZY HEART (with Jeff Bridges Q&A) and MIDDLE MEN.

We soon realized that we weren't going to make it to both movies, due to an overlapping time situation, so we let go of MIDDLE MEN, opting instead to try and hit CRAZY HEART. But, a late start and too good a time at Sharkeez resulted in us missing our movie.

We were too late for brunch, so we got lunch- and while we did have solid food, I would be amiss to not call this lunch "liquid."


A margarita, fajita and several sips of these shared bucket drinks later and I am shitty. I wasn't alone in this though. We had such a good time (the ten of us that ended up at lunch) sitting around talking and drinking and eating that we gladly missed the time to get in line for CRAZY HEART. We had a back up option: WAITING FOR FOREVER.

WAITING FOR FOREVER didn't start for another couple of hours after lunch, so Sarah and Denny and I wandered State Street. We ended up in Sephora, where Sarah needed to buy make-up and Denny and I drunkenly tried on all of the colognes. We smelt terrible.



We got into WAITING FOR FOREVER and aside from knowing it was a romantic dramedy, we knew nothing else.

WAITING FOR FOREVER is the story of a juggler who follows his childhood love around as she moves from city to city.

"Being in a place where I know I might see you is better than knowing I'll never see you."

When the time comes for him to tell her how he feels, a multitude of obstacles pop up for him to overcome.

I loved it.

Sure it had some cliche dramedy moments (dying parents, unrequited love, quirky character traits) but it was such a solid story with such great, defined characters that it didn't matter. Tom Sturridge is a phenomenal actor - look for him to explode onto the scene. His subtlety is spot on, his charm is infectious. He perfectly embodies the lovesick nomad of Will Donner.


Bilson is loveable enough, although clearly the weakest player in the film. Richard Jenkins and Blythe Danner capture any scene they're in. As Bilson's parents - I found myself wishing for more of them. Their storyline comes to an abrupt end and frankly, I wanted more.


One thing noticeably great about this film was the cinematography. It was a gorgeous film to look at. Denny and I both noticed it. The lighting and framing is beautiful.

All in all, this is, as another festivaler put it, a cute movie. They don't make simple cute movies like this anymore. Worth seeing it - assuming it gets distribution. None of these stars are big enough to carry this movie into theaters. Is the charming character and cute story enough to give a distributor the confidence to release it? I hope so. It was the best of the three films I saw at the festival.

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