
Better or worse, “I Love You Forever” revels in romantic comedy troupes. In the visually witty young-centric movie where the third generation iPhone user is considered ancient, it is quite endearing in its antique quality where filmmakers Cazzie David and Elisa Kalani introduce scenes of a law student Mackenzie (Sofia Black D’Elia) with her two bickering best friends (Jon Rudnitsky and Cazzie David) and an enduring melancholy love story with tones of Jessica Simpson and Michelle Branch. Speaking conventionally, it is a battered and reinterpreted genre that we hardly expected to see in 2024 in a context where psychological abuse in a relationship can do just as much harm as physical violence, which Mackenzie discovers when falling in love with the wrong guy.
In older generations, it would be more stereotypical for the wrong guy to be someone like Mark Wahlberg in “Fear” who can rough up the whole household if it comes to him and his partner. Today, it’s much better to embrace the notion that he more resembles Finn (Ray Nicholson), the dapper television journalist who Mackenzie encounters at a friend’s party. At first only some concerns about his intensity when courting her like how he makes sure she doesn’t think she will make a good first date impression by renting an entire restaurant for their first date. Soon after, they’re getting up to micro-aggressions and badgering Mackenzie for attention elsewhere than where she dares to give it.
The same goes with the leading couple, the more they look like in “I Love You Forever” movie which is a fairly average rom-com, the more it feels out of place. Co-directors have an initial idea that gets audiences all starry-eyed then the reality sets in, Mackenzie cannot imagine an alternative to the stories she is accustomed to. And why bother other people with that, she can tell everything else about her new boyfriend’s violent temper towards questions.
If, as Finn does, you are bewitched by the rich banter and incisive wits, then you must know that ‘I Love You Forever’ doesn’t come in a vacuum. Of its producers, Diablo Cody and Mason Novick, it is worth mentioning the authors of “Juno” and “Lisa Frankenstein.” Among the producers is also co-director Cazzie David, daughter of Larry David, creator of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm,’ which is where nasty comparisons will start, comparisons that this writing-directing couple might entertain, only to dismiss them with some one-liners about the dating app, Instagram’s interface and other such concerns.
When the budget of a film is apparently minimal, that quick wit becomes quite necessary. There are even more overwrought dramatic moments that can be attributed to the deceptively simple strategies that the filmmakers used to cut corners. Once in a while limited shot selection can appear to be one of the victims of a tight schedule. Conversely, mise en scene becomes a drawback when there does not appear to be much of a life for Mackenzie to return to after Finn makes her whole existence revolve around him. (From Michael Penn’s sprightly synth score and a soundtrack that features Miley Cyrus’s Flowers, it seems music was the one aspect where absolutely no cost was spared). Still, it appears almost fitting that Black D’Elia has the ability to elevate her character above the largely unnoticeable drawbacks that Finn brings about.
Mackenzie has an unflattering description, being disinterested in everything from studying law to engaging in a no-strings-attached sexual relationship with one of her classmates for the better part of two years. Understandably, she warms up to Finn being a gentleman who wants to be her protector. But Black D’Elia not only makes the audience care about this potentially insipid protagonist but convincingly makes the audience believe in Finn’s ability to redeem himself until pretty much the last moment in the film. There’s no way he’s going to allow her to quit easily and neither do David and Kalani for the nicer touch of showing just how suffocating that particular hold can be on an individual. In looking at how Mackenzie takes on the role of being ashamed for every time he’s let her down, David and Kalani view all idealistic romantics in the same light too long overdue for change as viewing an abominable concept in sight.
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