Valentine’s Double Feature: Endless Love (2014) & Forever My Girl (2018)

The third Valentine’s Double Feature is here. This time we’re at the Netflix Alphabets E & F. Its very much two selections about enduring love (according to Netflix). I can agree with that. Let’s check it out!

Endless Love (2014)

Director (and co-writer): Shana Feste

Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson, Robert Patrick, Rhys Wakefield

The story of a privileged girl and a charismatic boy whose instant desire sparks a love affair made only more reckless by parents trying to keep them apart. – IMDB

I believe the original was in 1980s and then a ton of remakes were done internationally. Hong Kong probably did it twice already with you know enduring love and not the same storyline. Point is, I actually haven’t seen the original and only have a slight memory of the first Hong Kong one (but it might have been a TV series…). I enjoy Nicholas Sparks movies so this falls into that kind of category even if its not from his stories. The story here works.

The issue with this one is that, despite some well-executed sweet moments and that these two are fabulous kissers, Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde just lacked chemistry in most scenes. It was more to do with how they interpreted the dialogue and their conversations often felt very rehearsed and for lack of a better word, wooden. When they didn’t talk though, they chemistry was much more apparent. In fact, in a romance film, I actually like the father roles played by Bruce Greenwood and Robert Patrick better especially the former who took his overprotective father role and just went all the way to the point that I found him frustrating and his role, in my mind, is supposed to be that sort of character that is caught in his corner about something and can’t get out.

Forever My Girl (2018)

Director (and screenplay): Bethany Ashton Wolf

Cast: Alex Roe, Jessica Rothe, Abby Ryder Fortson, Peter Cambor, Gillian Vigman, Tyler Riggs, John Benjamin Hickey

After being gone for a decade a country star returns home to the love he left behind. – IMDB

Forever My Girl is honestly a fairly generic plot line. Some guy leaves his high school sweetheart at the altar because he was young and dumb and fell out of his life in a small hometown and some event brings him back and he realizes everything he missed and then just as things are starting to work out, something else happens to make him question whether he is good for everyone but of course, being the story that it is, he always comes back and everyone welcomes him again despite his flaws. I sound cynical, I know. But, other than the part that no one questions that he just comes back after ditching two times before, Forever My Girl is pretty good because there are some heartwarming moments throughout that do shine out.

We can see the character grow and Alex Roe does a decent job in this role along with the fact that he and Jessica Rothe do have a ton of chemistry. While their script sometimes isn’t perfect, they do a good job at making it work and being believable. Not to mention this story isn’t just about getting the girl back but also about building his bond again with his father and learning that he has a daughter and building that relationship up as well to be accepted as a dad. On that note, the daughter played by Abby Ryder Fortson is awesome. She was so fun and charming to watch. Forever My Girl definitely turned out better than I expected even if its really for the super sappy romance tolerant viewers.

That’s it for the third Valentine’s Double  Feature!
These things are pairing up better than I expected 😉
Have you seen these films? Thoughts?