Forever Can End (Film Review: Celeste And Jesse Forever)

Is Rom-Com dead? Nowadays, it is used more as a punchline than anything else.  Very few people nowadays do the traditional romance, you know, like the ones that sweep you off your feet. Valentine's Day is tomorrow, romance is literally around the corner so I might as well write about "Celeste And Jesse Forever," a movie I saw on Blu-Ray the other night. Celeste and Jesse are getting a divorce, but they are still always together. You see, they are best friends, above all, and they still enjoy each other's company. It irks their friends (Ari Gaynor as Celeste's friend is fantastic - someone give this woman her own movie already!) and they think it's unnatural, which, come to think of it, is right. Essentially, the movie is set up as anti-rom-com. These two people, instead of getting together, are breakign apart. Written by Rashida Jones, it's a complicated yarn of a story. It sometimes takes a lot of time when lovers fully untangle themselves from each other, and more often than not, it's a tricky road. There are residual feelings that get in the way of moving on. This movie highlights those perfectly. Jones and Samberg have perfect chemistry, you believe they should be together. But you also see how they different they are, and as they try to let go of each other, the internal conflict becomes unbearable. You want them to stay together, you want them to stay apart. That is love: a complicated grey area of being, and it has never been shown more vividly. I found these characters stayed with me after, and now that I am writing about them, I find myself still pondering. I particularly was smitten by Samberg, who I thought was very effective in a role that has him being more than a juvenile man-child. What I liked most about the story is that you never really know how it ends. Usually on romantic comedies, you sense the ending ten minutes into the movie, This is readily available on Netflix and Amazon - I can't think of a perfect romantic date on Valentine's Day for those seeking some love.