Celeste and Jesse Forever
Review by Anthony Morris
Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Adam Samberg) are the bestest of best friends. They have in jokes, they know each others lives, they care about each other. Which is a problem, because they’re also getting divorced.
While they act like their situation is the best possible result after six years of marriage and years of relationship before that, having Jesse – an artist who's not exactly getting it done – living in his studio out the back of the house where Celeste – a trend forecaster who co-owns her own business and just published a book titled Shitegeist – does feel like they're not really moving on with their lives.
Celeste seems vaguely frustrated by Jesse’s failure to get his act together; Jesse holds out hope they’ll get back together. And then suddenly his life heads off on a surprise tangent and Celeste, who's been the one who's always in control and always right, starts to crumble around the edges.
There's not a whole lot to this film story-wise and it's not quite as gut-wrenching as some of the other indie break-up films that have come out over the last few years, but considering the relatively lightweight comedy performances both leads are best known for their character work is the real draw here.
Samberg is surprisingly solid as a guy who mans up for once in his life; Jones, who co-wrote the script, isn't afraid to turn herself into a real mess.
There are a lot of decent laughs here but this is never a jokey film, and the various romantic trajectories largely play out in that kind of muddling, slightly frustrating way that's the trademark of indie films at the moment.
It may rely a little too much on audience identification (if you don't like the characters or can't relate to the situation, there's not a lot else for you here), but if you're on its wavelength this will linger long after the credits roll.
And not just because at one point Celeste makes friends with a character who's basically Ke$ha.
Conclusion: Movie 70% Extras: N/A
