feeling listless

Film Anyone who has any kind of awareness of screenwriting will know about the three act structure.In the first act Set up to first plot point, in the second act run around for a while until the second major plot point happens ready for the third act resolution. All (well most films) fit this structure and it's there as much for the audience to hang their coat on as the writers. So any film which seemingly ignores the rules or doesn't care for them can be an unsettling experience.

Watching Down To You, the Freddie (Mr. Buffy) Prinze Jr, Julia (Shakespeare) Stiles teen film is infuriating for this reason. Boy meets girl in bar, they fall in love, they break up, they get back together. And that's it. But the film begins as though something major will happen in the first half hour, some mcguffin to send the relationship in a spin. Typically in other films this could range from they're brother and sister / he's an alien I she's dying of cancer lone of them is gay (see 'Chasing Amy'). But nothing happens. She gets pregnant at one stage but it's treated in such a cursory manner and so little worry she could have had the baby anyway and we might not have noticed.

It's fairly obvious that writer / director Kris Isacsson is attempting recreate the feeling of 80s teen films. So we have a rerun of Ducky's miming scene in Pretty in Pink, the art gallery scene from Some Kind of Wonderful, the fantasy sequences of She's Having A Baby; but it doesn't go anywhere, there isn't some big story constantly driving things forward, and at times the dialogue is unremittingly banal. Which is a shame, because just sometimes there are funny lines and characters (one of his friends is rerunning Orson Wells' early career); this is one of those cases where allowing the leads to break the forth wall isn't a bad idea; the cinematography is very vital in places. And if you just let it wash over you, it's just fine. You'll just feel a bit empty afterwards, like you've tucked into a Milky Way.