Celeste & Jesse Forever

[BillBrasky]

Release Date: August 3, 2012 (NY, LA)
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Lee Toland Krieger
Screenwriter: Rashida Jones, Will McCormack
Starring: Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Will McCormack, Emma Roberts, Elijah Wood
Genre: Comedy, Romance

Plot Summary: "Celeste & Jesse Forever" is about two people who met in high school, married young and are growing apart. Now thirty, they decide to get divorced and attempt to stay best friends while pursuing other relationships. This plan is not as simple as they had imagined. Celeste--imperious, successful and driven--is convinced that divorcing the boyish Jesse is the right thing to do. Jesse passively accepts this transition into friendship, even though he still is in love with her. As the reality of their separation sets in, Celeste slowly and painfully realizes she has been cavalier about their relationship. But her timing with Jesse is less than fortuitous. While navigating the turbulent changes in their lives and in their hearts, these two learn that in order to truly love someone, you may have to let them go. The film is a humorous and honest examination of a broken heart and the long, hard road it takes to heal it.

Trailer:

[JDiddy]

When I read the screenwriters and saw "Will McCormack" I thought it was Eric McCormack who played Will on Will & Grace. And I thought to myself well this is a weird pair...

Anywho, this looks pretty good and definitely my type of movie. Rashida Jones is always great and adorable, and I'm a big Samberg fan. Also pretty sure I saw Rich Sommer! That will always get me interested.

[BillBrasky]

I wasn't really expecting to like this much, but it was pretty enjoyable. There have been a million of these quirky indie romantic comedies, but this one doesn't take itself so seriously and most of its insights and little moments ring pretty true. Rashida Jones kept the tone really light and not a million miles away from the type of humor that you would find on the NBC comedies like The Office and Parks & Recreation. Samberg of course is really more comfortable doing comedy acting than trying to be a serious dramatic straight man, so he comes off better in the comedic scenes too.

The tone of it was pretty fresh and up to the moment, with mentions of Facebook and stuff like that not as irritating as they can often be in movies/TV shows of this type (*cough cough GIRLS*) I spotted the Echo Park Time Travel Mart in one scene, which was pretty cool. Basically I think Jones is too smart and surrounds herself with too many cool, funny people all the time for this movie to have become "Garden State 2.0" or anything like that. Instead it remained pretty true to life in current day Los Angeles, and for the most part funny.