Endless Love
Ahh, young love. Bland, melodramatic young love. It’s on full display in this adaptation of Scott Spencer’s novel, Endless Love. Apparently, the novel is pretty dark stuff, but you wouldn’t know it watching this movie. Sure, there are “dark secrets” in the past of David, the son of a car mechanic who falls in love with Jade, the brilliant daughter of a wealthy, successful surgeon, and let’s be honest, the father, Hugh, is far from perfect himself. But any real darkness is removed in favor of young love cliches and an emotional depth that makes your average Nicholas Sparks adaptation feel completely Shakespearean by comparison.
This is the second time the book has been brought to the screen, and by all accounts, this one is actually better than Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 Razzie-nominated effort, to which I say, yikes. The performances by Alex Pettyfer and Gabrielle Wilde as David and Jade are passable at best, and as a result, the work by Joely Richardson (as Jade’s hopeless romantic mother) and Robert Patrick (as David’s father) make stronger impressions, as does Bruce Greenwood as Jade’s father, although his character is even more predictable in his actions than our lovebirds are. Nothing in this movie comes as a surprise, and while plenty of movies are like that, at least others don’t fall into the rhythms of romantic cliches so easily, and quickly, as this one does. Next, please.
