Aside from being a remake of Brooke Shield’s 1981 film of the same name, “Endless Love” is a modernized and interpreted version adapted for the generation of young people today. The film is truly a sun-kissed love story told through a lens that is beautiful to look at, but is written by a director that understands what it is that the audience wants, especially during one of the most forcefully romantic times of the year.
No movie released on or near Valentine’s Day can really be judged on ingenuity, due to the fact that like the holiday itself, there is nothing too original about roses, chocolates, and forced romanticism which is the driving notion filling the minds of many. Instead, writer and director Shana Feste presents “Endless Love” as an entertaining film that is a nicely shot representation of first love with many of the essential, sappy ingredients to make it a success for younger audiences.
Darting from scenes of hopping along car roofs to kissing the girl of his dreams, “Endless Love” proves to be a safe and soft story of two lovers, Jade Butterfield (Gabriella Wilde) and David Elliot (Alex Pettyfer), who find themselves on opposite ends of the ladder of life, yet are drawn to one another in the excitement of first love. Jade is a privileged young girl, while David is a charismatic boy, yet their instant desire overrides their differences and sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart.
Apart from their polar opposite social situations, the real conflict in the film proves to be the relationship between Jade’s overprotective father, Hugh and David. Their consistent clash in the film is the main source of conflict for so many of the characters’ actions in the film, and is a relationship that shows the intents of a young and susceptible boy against the expectations of a worried and domineering father. Jade’s father may have been a bit manipulative in the film, based upon the fact that he was a bit controlling and dramatic with his actions towards David, but there is no doubt that Hugh faces many of the concerns of fathers whose daughters stray from the path they’ve worked so hard to set out for them.
Along with the conflicting ‘boyfriend-father’ drama, the young love presented between David and Jade in “Endless Love” is a very theatrical and exaggerated descent into social classes and how it affects young people madly in love. However, beneath the extravagant showcases of passion, throughout the film there are in fact hints of truth and reality scattered about that work to make the film worth the one hour and forty-four minute showing.
The movie is chock full of darling love scenes and montages that are bound to make you swoon, or perhaps make you quite bitter, depending on your outlook on love during Valentine’s Day. However, the love story plot of the movie is not exactly life-changing, but I suppose you could say “Endless Love” knows exactly the type of movie it is and proceeds to present itself well in that manner. The film incorporates romance and adventure, it sets off a few fireworks and contains all of the other things I’d ever want to curl up and watch in a feel-good, sappy chick-flick.
By Manal Salim
What did you think of “Endless Love”?