Review by Jessica Whitford for Mr. Will Wong
In the very least, Endless Love will have you pining for Summer, flowing blonde hair, and the strong hand of a young Autoworker to hold! Delightfully-predictable and cliché-heavy, the Romantic-Drama serves-up exactly what you might expect of the Genre, with a few surprises perhaps.
After a family tragedy leaves Jade Butterfield (Gabriella Wilde) despondent and heartbroken, she shuts-out the World, but one person always had his heart set on her. That person was David Elliot (Alex Pettyfer), reformed Bad Boy, sun-kissed and charismatic. A chance encounter, a fast car, and a warm breeze were all it took to spark a Summer Love that would change both their lives forever. David works hard to win over Jade’s Father (Bruce Greenwood), who is burdened with loss and hiding secrets of his own, but continues to fall short. Tension grows as Jade prepares to leave town for a prestigious internship, followed by College in the fall. With time looming and Jade’s Father becoming more obsessed with ridding David from their lives, the Couple must fight for each other and love itself.
Endless Love is set in beautiful Georgia, to a Soundtrack that provides emotional cues with out causing major distraction (check-out NONONO’s Pumping Blood). Pettyfer  as the doting Boyfriend is a surprisingly easy sell. While he appears uncomfortable and disconnected in the scenes that weren’t montaged (few), his performance overall  is on-point. Wilde is astonishingly-beautiful as the archetypal Ice Queen but her thaw comes perhaps at an odd pacing. In a matter of days, the awkward Bookworm blossoms into a beautiful PG-13 Butterfly, lifting her skirt in a meadow and breaking into petting zoos. Sugary rebellion!
Two types of people will see Endless Love in its well-timed Valentine’s Day release: those who love Romantic-Dramas and those who love “people who love Romantic-Dramas. The first group get exactly what they bargained for, and will revel in all 103 minutes of dimly-lit beautiful, young people and the fact that so little of this resembles real life. The second category are a Captive Audience.
Universal Pictures Canada release Endless Love on Friday, February 14, 2014.
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