Celeste and Jesse Forever
★★★
Dir. Lee Toland Krieger
(2013)
Andy Samberg and Rashida Jones put in a couple of winning performances in a film which doesn't quite know if it's out to slander the conventions of the romantic comedy or use them to its own unique means. Celeste and Jesse look like any couple in love; they meet, share their first kiss, get married and holiday in the film's opening titles, a sickly sweet affair which continues into the intro of the film. Weirdly, we find out that this couple in love aren't a couple in love; They are in fact waiting for a divorce to come through; their friends freaking out at their closeness as best friends in the face of an ending relationship.
This slightly unbelievable scenario is more or less the catch of Celeste and Jesse Forever. It attempts to examine our idea of what break-ups can be, what they do to friends and to the couple and how do people react when losing someone isn't as abrupt as usual? Though the ideas may sound deep and unique for a rom com, wondering about societies preconceptions when it comes to splitting the farm and staying friends soon takes a back seat when Jesse instantly finds a new parter and his "lost child" is forced to suddenly be a "responsible man". From then on we're mostly sided with Celeste here, her jealousy and regret bubbling below the surface, as the immature boy she lost grows up with someone else.
Written by Jones and her own ex-boyfriend Will McCormack (appearing in the film as weed dealer Skillz) Celeste and Jesse is a different kind of film than we're used to seeing. It rightfully dismisses a lot of tropes and ticks which are becoming painfully boring in comedy and for that it could never have succeeded as a mainstream hit among the obvious femme demographic, despite the title and the pull of the immensely popular Samberg. Celeste's own job as a "trend forecaster" looks to mock the world of film and advertising too but unfortunately the shots fail to find their target and a pointless pop star subplot distills much of the chemistry between our leads and their fumbling return to dating.
It's well acted and Jones and Samberg do a great balancing act in making us wonder whether we're fighting for them or not between the conventions of cinematic romance and the reality of what we would actually do. There is a lot to be said for the film's final last gasp defiance to adhere to the "rom com rules" and for that I salute Celeste and Jesse Forever as a likeable piece of film making with in this quickly dying genre. But, lets face it, Woody Allen said more about break ups in the final 1 minute of Annie Hall than anybody has said in cinema since. Maybe we just keep making these films because we need the eggs?
