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Celeste
(Rashida
Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) are former high school sweethearts who
are now
in the process of getting divorced. Celeste is a trend forecaster who,
along
with her business partner Scott (Elijah Wood), co-heads a successful
media
company. Jesse is an unemployed
artist who has never really matured and has no clear direction in life.
While
Jesse is still in love with her, Celeste decides to divorce Jesse
because she
believes he would be too irresponsible to father her future children.
Their break-up
is abnormal in that they both hang
out together as best friends and carry on normally around their mutual
friends
as if their upcoming divorce is a minor detail. Their mixed signals
confuse
their friends and especially themselves, as it is obvious that they
still have
feelings for each other. Celeste and Jesse are eventually forced to
confront these
feelings when Jesse informs Celeste that he accidentally impregnated
Veronica
(Rebecca Dayan), a Belgian student he hooked up with during
the divorce. Tragically for Celeste, it is Veronica who
makes a man out of Jesse, as he decides to stick by his
new family. She is shattered by the news and tries to numb the
pain by seeing other people and regularly getting blazed with her
pot-dealing
friend, Skillz (Will McCormack). It is ironically she who ends up
stalling
their divorce as Jesse tries to force it through so that he can begin
his new
life. Celeste is forced to admit that she was still in love with Jesse
but it might
already be too late for them.
In only
his third outing,
Lee Krieger has directed a stylish and affecting film that everybody
should
watch. Celeste and Jesse Forever harmonises
a streamlined script, excellent performances and gorgeous imagery to
great
effect. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack have written a loose, clever
screenplay
that explores the complex blur of modern love. It illustrates how
relationships
can often be as much influenced by feelings of perceived
entitlement as pure affection, with potentially disastrous
consequences. Celeste and Jesse are characterised with such
simultaneous detail
and restraint that it often feels as if they are people we might
actually know.
We see their little quirks like when they pretend to be a German couple
around
their friends and at the same time we observe their past revealed
through
implication. Rashida Jones’ acting complements her writing as she delivers a scene-stealing portrayal of
an over-thinking woman who feels
smarter than everyone around her, even though she lacks the basic
wisdom to understand
that logic has little currency in
the realm of love. In one of the film’s strongest scenes, Celeste
delivers a
speech at her best friend’s wedding, wishing the newlyweds a blessed
future through
words that speak more relevantly to her bitter regrets over Jesse. Not
all of
the acting is great however. Elijah Wood is woefully miscast as
Celeste’s homosexual
partner and friend. But I digress. The film ultimately excels because
of its
emotional depth - the way that it uses its imagery, dialogue and music
to make
us fall for its characters and then later to break our hearts.
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