Endless Love

Those of you looking for a remake of the 1981 Endless Love movie that starred Brooke Shields, or even a more faithful adaptation of the 1979 novel that inspired it, will not find what they are looking for with this 2014 version.  This is a sometimes sweet and inoffensive teen romance story that honestly didn't need the attachment to the earlier material to succeed.  And since this movie has nothing to do with the earlier film or the original novel, other than some character names and the fact that a house catches on fire at one point,  you have to wonder why the filmmakers didn't just give it a different title.

Both the earlier film and the source novel were about teenage love turning to obsession, and how it can lead to dangerous things.  This Endless Love takes a more Nicholas Sparks approach, with lots of wistful montages, lots of kissing, and a tiny bit of PG-13 sex and raunchiness just to tantalize the teens in the audience.  Our young lovers, David (Alex Pettyfer) and Jade (Gabriella Wilde), are recent graduates from high school who are separated by class.  David's a lower class kid who works at an auto garage with his dad (Robert Patrick).  He's admired Jade ever since seventh grade, but she comes from a world of wealth, and he's always been afraid to talk to her.  It doesn't help that Jade has been an emotional shut in ever since her older brother died of cancer a few years ago, and doesn't really fit in with everybody.  With high school over, Jade's about to fly off to college to follow in her father's footsteps to study to become a cardiologist.  But then David and Jade have a meet cute scene, and they start to fall in love, which makes Jade question what she really wants to do with the rest of her life.

This does not sit well with Jade's father (Bruce Greenwood), who has the role of the heavy in the story.  He doesn't like David, because the guy seems to have no plans for the future, not even to go on to college.  He doesn't want his daughter to get involved with this guy, and grows even more concerned when he witnesses them frolicking in the lake from his home window.  David does his best to try to win over Jade's dad.  He fixes up the car that once belonged to her dead brother, and he even starts looking into going to college in the second semester.  Bruce Greenwood is a very capable actor, and he's good in the role, but he's stuck playing a character who is supposed to be wrong at every turn, and resist every effort that David tries to win him over.  Joely Richardson plays his long-suffering wife, and she's good too, but her role seems to be cut short.  We keep on waiting for her big scene where she finally blows up at the guy and tells him to get a life, but it never happens.  We can sense her exasperation, and she looks like she's ready to explode at any minute, but she stays muted most of the time.

If Winter's Tale was a romantic fairy tale with a lot of weirdness tossed in, then Endless Love is a much more conventional story about teenage love, and parents who just don't understand.  For what it is, it's made well enough.  Pettyfer and Wilde do actually have good chemistry during their scenes together, and they make a good couple, even if they both look a little too old to be playing 17-year-olds.  All of the actors here are actually very good, and there are some nice moments where we see Jade's family slowly opening up and having fun for the first time when David comes around.  These moments have a certain breezy charm - maybe a bit too breezy, because the movie itself lacks real tension.  For all of Greenwood's huffing and screaming about David being a bad influence, and eventually tossing out a restraining order, we never find ourselves fearful about the fate of this couple.  It doesn't help that the plot eventually becomes horribly contrived, and starts throwing in a lot of forced situations to either keep David and Jade apart, or in trouble.  The movie's at its best when its just being a simple and sweet teenage love story.

I'm certain Endless Love will strike a chord with teen audiences over Valentine's Day weekend, but I can't imagine the shock they're in for if they happen to read the novel after seeing this movie.  Even the original author, Scott Spencer, has spoken out about how this movie has little to nothing to do with his book.  As a faithful adaptation, this doesn't cut it.  But, as a conventional romantic fantasy that kids can get lost in, I've seen a lot worse.

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