posted on Thursday, June 16, 2011 in Movie Reviews
Love is all-powerful in movies. It spans oceans, moves mountains, and accommodates a superhuman capacity for forgiveness. In the most extreme cases, it cures ailments and brings the dead back to life. It's a fine fantasy to hold on to, but that paradigm limits the kind of stories that can be told. It results in films that remove themselves from reality, defying logic and sense in favor of artificial resolutions where love does indeed conquer all. But love is more complicated than that, and that's where Forever and a Day seems to come from. While still bearing many of the shopworn clichés of the genre, the film finds something bigger and more powerful as it faces tougher truths.Athletic shoe designer Eugene (Sam Milby) has a major competitive streak. When his new shoe design doesn't take off, he runs away rather than face his failure. He and a couple of friends head off to Bukidnon for an adventure weekend, and there he meets Raffy (KC Concepcion). Raffy's trying to overcome her fears, and Eugene is all too happy to push her. They develop feelings for each other, but Raffy retreats when things start getting real. It turns out that she's keeping a secret, one that Eugene might not be able to deal with.
It's gets off to a rocky start, going through the expository motions of your standard Star Cinema film. The film goes a little too broad in introducing its characters, immediately signposting their eventual arcs. Pretty much everything that takes place at the shoe company feels contrived and exaggerated, especially considering what follows next. The film takes a fairly predictable turn, but then follows it through with a conviction that just isn't typical to mainstream pictures. It's difficult to talk about it without giving too much away, but the film takes a more grounded and mature route to its resolution.
The film doesn't completely abandon the structure. There are still plenty of cute lines and big romantic moments to satisfy the fans of the genre. But there's something more at its core, a real effort to logically explore the characters' reactions to their situation. The film bravely sidesteps the easy happy ending and instead finds the joy in an imperfect life. A lot of it still feels extraneous, but when it brings the relationship into focus, the film can be quite moving. The film is technically sound. There's a weird aspect ratio issue in the middle, but the film is otherwise visually solid.
Sam Milby's slightly accented speech sometimes gets in the way of what he's trying to say. It's especially noticeable when he's speaking loudly or quickly. But Milby is great in the moments in between, where a quiet sense of melancholy shines through. KC Concepcion can be problematic as well, but she seems to do well when paired with directors that really care. Given instruction, Concepcion thrives. She never looks quite as sick as the movie makes her out to be, but it works well enough.
Forever and a Day is still suffused with a lot of bad habits. Detractors of the genre will still find cheesy dialogue, extraneous characters, and empty romantic gestures filling in the gaps where more story ought to be. But the film rushes past all the artifice, and instead spends a lot of its time exploring the limitations of love and the mechanics of loss. The film doesn't back away from its conceit, embracing its one harsh truth and telling the sweetest story that it can. In doing so, the film earns a beautiful ending that presents a version of happiness closer to what real people experience. That's a pretty astounding thing.
My Rating:
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