Waiting for Forever Blu-ray

Waiting for Forever (Blu-ray)
Directed by James Keach

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1   1080p   AVC codec
Running Time: 95 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish

Region: A
MSRP: $ 29.99

Release Date: May 3, 2011

Review Date: May 19, 2011

The Film

2/5

Films featuring a cast of dysfunctional characters don’t have to be irritating or off-putting, but James Keach’s Waiting for Forever certainly is. A tepid excuse for a romantic dramedy featuring damaged and unappealing main characters striving to put their lives aright, Waiting for Forever dares you not to like it making it all the more resistible. Can someone really have found this story appealing enough to greenlight the project? There isn’t a moment that rings true, there are several characters you want to seriously slap some sense into, and one pines for the endless parade of preciousness and mawkish innocence to end. Twenty years ago, Robin Williams would have been making this; ten years ago, one could see Johnny Depp playing the lead. Neither would have made the film any more palatable than Tom Sturridge makes it which is to say, he doesn’t.

Separated from the love of his life (Rachel Bilson) at a very young age, Will Donner (Tom Sturridge) has spent all of his adult life following her around from college in Oregon to theater in San Francisco to eventual stardom on a TV sitcom in Los Angeles and now back home as she returns to spend the remaining days of his life with her father (Richard Jenkins) who’s dying of kidney failure. Will has never told Emma how he truly feels about her, but spurred on by friends, he finally summons the courage to reintroduce himself to her on the street. The trouble is, Emma is in the midst of a romantic meltdown with her boy friend Aaron (Matthew Davis) who is so insanely jealous of any man who looks at Emma that he’s killed a friend whom she dated and has now followed her back East to reclaim her. Once he finds out about the stalking that Will has been doing, he gets the idea that the murder could be blamed on Will freeing him to take Emma back to California after their wedding.

Though it’s as clear as can be to the audience that Will is mentally ill, none of his friends seem to notice, and his brother (Scott Mechlowicz) can only offer him financial advice and lectures about growing up and accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. Even Emma, who remembers the charmed childhood they spent together and enjoys spending time with this child-man who juggles and wears pajamas as his clothes, doesn’t seem to catch on that Will isn’t merely eccentric but that he is in serious need of some psychological counseling. His goodness and innocence are supposed to be so elfin and appealing that we ignore the danger signals of his talking to his dead parents as if they were standing beside him. Does screenwriter Steve Adams really believe that the love of his childhood sweetheart, who has her own serious issues with depression and self-worth, is all Will needs to come down to earth? For his part, director James Keach cuts in rather clumsily flashbacks of Will’s parents in a railway accident that left him and his brother without them along with memories of idyllic days with Emma before the tragedy and the murder in LA, all quite jarring to the overall tone of the piece. Will and Emma revisiting a playground where they spent carefree hours on the monkey bars and carousel are more in the tranquil spirit the movie has established.

Tom Sturridge does everything right with this totally ill-conceived and unbelievable character, his eyes becoming the windows into the man’s complete purity and naiveté. Rachel Bilson is hampered by the completely flighty and infuriating people surrounding her from her ditzy mother played with stunning vapidity by Blythe Danner and her sarcastic, ignoble father enacted credibly but distastefully by Richard Jenkins. Matthew Davis has his own set of insecurities and mental problems as the violently unstable Aaron. A facial resemblance with Tom Sturridge allows Scott Mechlowicz to make a believable older brother, and his Jim is the film’s lone light of sanity which, because he talks in no-nonsense terms to his cherubic younger sibling though without offering to get him some kind of professional help, makes him come off at worst as a complete lout and at best as a spoil sport of the worst kind. A late taxi ride with his brother amply demonstrates his true feelings for Will in by far the film’s best scene.

Video Quality

5/5

The film has been framed at its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Apart from Will’s flashbacks which have been diffused and slightly desaturated to suggest long ago moments, the image is sparkling in every sense with sharpness that is razor-edged and filled with detail, color saturation which is rich but never to the point of being overdone, and flesh tones which are natural and vivid. Black levels are superb. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.

Audio Quality

4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix makes no use of the rear channels for anything but the Damian Katkhuda-Nick Urata music score which achieves excellent fidelity and wide expanse during its use. Otherwise, the audio track concentrates on the front channels almost exclusively with next to no ambient sounds ever drifting into the rears. Dialogue is nicely recorded and resides firmly in the center channel.

Special Features

0/5

Apart from promo trailers for Mao’s Last Dancer and Black Swan, there are no bonus features on the disc.

In Conclusion

2/5 (not an average)

While Waiting for Forever tries its best to achieve a lighter-than-air sprightliness in telling its tale of long-strived for love, its story is simply too off-putting and clumsily handled to ring true in any way. The talented cast is at the mercy of a script that simply doesn’t work, and the lack of any bonus features to explain what they were after dooms the disc for all but the most devoted fans.

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC