Thursday , March 28 2024
The OC's Rachel Bilson & Pirate Radio's Tom Sturridge star in the sweet, yet weird Waiting for Forever.

DVD Review: Waiting for Forever

Directed by James Keach, Waiting for Forever boasts a pretty decent cast including; Rachel Bilson, Tom Sturridge, Blythe Danner, Richard Jenkins, Nikki Blonsky, and Matthew Davis. It’s definitely a sweet, yet weird movie.

The movie opens with Will Donner (Sturridge) hitchhiking to get back to his hometown in Pennsylvania. In talking to the couple that picks him up, the audience finds out that he’s on his way home to see his childhood best friend and love of his life, Emma Twist (Bilson), who’s home from LA to visit her dying father.

Toss all assumptions out the window, because just when you think that this is going to be a happy reunion between the two characters, the audience finds out that both Will and Emma have their own set of issues.

Will has been in love with Emma since they were kids, and wants to tell her that he’s in love with her. His relationship with his brother Jim (Scott Mechlowicz) is strained due to his fixation on this girl from his past. He also has a tendency to talk to his parents (who died in a train accident when he was younger) as if they are by his side at all times.

Emma is a star of a hit TV show, and has recently ended her relationship with boyfriend Aaron (Davis), who comes to town after accidentally killing the man she cheated on him with to make amends.

All Will wants to do is tell Emma that he’s been in love with her forever and get the happy ending that his heart desires. When Emma finds out that Will has been following her to be close to her in LA where she films, San Francisco where her home is, and now back to her hometown, she’s upset, confused, and reasonably freaked out.

The movie gets weird when Emma’s ex has Will arrested for the murder he committed. I understand how the character would think he could pull it off, but it does seem far fetched, plus it’s a complete distraction from the storyline as a whole. The redeeming part of these shenanigans is that the boyfriend does eventually get caught.

In the end, Will returns to San Francisco on his own and works down at Fisherman’s Wharf as a street performer. Emma goes to find him, because her feelings have apparently changed enough to the point where Will cracks a “Are you following me?” joke, and she finds it amusing.

I really wish the DVD included some kind of behind the scenes extra with the director and writer to get a better understanding about the depth of this movie. For me, this is a really odd romantic comedy. I didn’t find it entirely romantic, nor comedic. I think if you look at the big picture, it’s a sweet story. But once you realize that both of these characters have issues, it comes across as just sort of weird. Will is just following Emma around in hopes she’d fall in love with him, and because they exist in movie world, that’s exactly what happened. I think if you’re a hopeless romantic at heart, then you will more than likely enjoy Waiting for Forever.

Waiting for Forever is available on DVD now.

About Kirsten Coachman

Kirsten Coachman is a writer and editor from the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit her long-running music blog, Wait...WHAT, at waitwhatmusic.net. Follow Kirsten Coachman on Twitter: @KirsCoachman

Check Also

Total Control

DVD Review: ‘Total Control’

'Total Control', an Australian poetical six part mini-series is the show you didn't know you needed to watch - so watch it.