Celeste and Jesse Forever: Movie Review

Celeste and Jesse Forever: Movie Review

Cast: Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Ari Graynor, Emma Roberts, Chris Messina, Elijah Wood
Director: Lee Toland Krieger

So, for 2013, a quirky and fresh rom com with a hipster twist.

Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg star as Celeste and Jesse, a couple who seem perfect for each other.

They compliment and complement each other, seem to finish each other's sentences and work perfectly. The only problem is they were married and are now separated. But they still live in the same house and hang out every day, do dinner with friends and so forth.

But when a couple of their friends tell them they can't cope any longer with this closeness which seems unnatural after separation, cracks begin to form in Jesse and Celeste's relationship.

When Jesse starts dating someone else, Celeste starts to go off the rails and pretty soon, everything's heading for a total implosion.

There's a truth which permeates this bittersweet rom com and both the leads, Jones and Samberg, encapsulate it perfectly. With each side veering between being back in love with the other, this could have been one of those cloying, deeply annoying and totally irritating films where everything's oh-so cutesy and it all works out in the end.

Thankfully, due to a very real (and borderline annoying in places) performance from Jones, this feels real. Jones herself even wrote the screen play and it benefits from the truth and veracity of someone who's clearly been through such real life events.

There's a rich vein of humour throughout as well which helps punctuate any pretentiousness on show. Of which, there is occasionally some. With moving camera work and a hipster OST, this does, very occasionally, try a little too hard to be too cool for school and there is a feeling towards the end that it's run over length and out of steam.

Celeste and Jesse Forever is a good, solid, quirky, offbeat romcom which really benefits from an honest script and strong performances. It captures the twilight of a relationship which neither party wants to sacrifice and chronicles the reality of life while avoiding many of the genre cliches. Fresh and original, with a hipster heart at its centre, some people will utterly adore this film.

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