adminFilm: Endless Love
Cast: Alex Pettufer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson, Robert Patrick, Mike Bland, Marie Barck, Skip Welch.Cinema: Eastgate
Age restriction: 16
Type of film: Family drama
Director: Shana Festa
Running time: 105
Reviewed by Professor Joel White.
Rare it is, and unfortunately so, that we get to see a film directed by a woman. And, in the case of a love story which, to some degree, this is it is especially welcome.
Unfortunately, this film’s beginning requires that we accept a very relevant and important fact that is hard to believe. That the actress Gabriella Wilde, in the leading role as Jane, and as gorgeous as any 18 year old I’ve ever seen, has spent four years in co-educational high school and has never had a boyfriend or even a date.
We are in the south of America, in the State of Georgia, and we are further asked to accept something which is not true. Would that it were: that in American high schools the students whites and blacks mingle freely and unselfconsciously.
Literally days before graduation Jane meets a fellow student who is also graduating, David (Alex Pettufer). From a significantly lower class family, David’s mother has died and his father is a mechanic. Jane’s father, on the other hand, is a doctor and it has been assumed that she will follow suit.
So, although the film brushes aside the enormous racial divide, it over emphasizes (in the opinion of this American) the “what you do for a living.”
In the event that the viewer has not got the message that her father is the bad guy in this film, we are shown a scene early on in which the father has a love scene with a young woman, never seen again.
The film is of great value to those Zimbabweans who aspire to attend an American university; even for those who would like to tour America. And if you think motor car traffic in Harare makes life difficult.
I have not lived in the States for over 40 years, and I’m always interested in depictions of the racial situation. Mixed race gatherings are frequently depicted in this film.
One hopes this is a reflection of reality.
Online Reporter