LOVE, ROSIE
UK, 2014, 102 minutes, colour.
Lily Collins, Sam Claflin, Christian Cooke, Jamie Winston, Sukio Waterhouse, Tamson Egerton.
Directed by Christian Ditter.
It was only after the film was over that this reviewer realised that we are present in Dublin. Everybody speaks with such clear British accents. Half of the film is located in Dublin, the other half in Boston.
This film is based on a 2004 novel, Where the Rainbow Ends. Perhaps the film does end at the end of the rainbow but the film could have been called Long Years Journey into the Evident. So, this is the story of Rosie and Alex, childhood friends, teenage best friends, adult distant friends and the ups and downs of their lives.
Rosie and Alex are shown as young kids, bonding, sharing experiences with each other, each at home with the other. But, at Rosie’s 18th birthday, she drinks too much, flirts, can’t remember anything afterwards. In the meantime, Alex, for some reason that he (and we) can’t quite work out, does not see Rosie romantically and enters into a relationship with the vain Bethany. On a kind of rebound, Rosie has a one night stand with Greg, satisfying to him after a few moments, unsatisfying to her, when she has to go to hospital because of her not being able to find the condom he used.
The best played laid plans… Alex has a scholarship to Harvard to study medicine and off he goes. Rosie was intending to go to America to do a hotel management course but, morning sickness, and…
Supported by a wonderful and wise father, and her mother, Rosie gives birth but instantly bonds with her daughter and decides not to put her up for adoption.
Years pass, Rosie gets a cleaning job at a hotel, works with her best friend and confidante, Ruby, brings up her daughter, with the usual bouts of colic, sweetness, first steps, and the years pass. Greg come back on the scene and, for some moments, we hope that all will be well and Rosie, Greg and the daughter will become a family. But.
In the meantime, Alex gets tangled with a supremely snobbish young woman, invites Rosie to visit Boston, a visit which is a disaster. And so on…
By the time 12 years have passed, the daughter is verging on teenage and disagreeing with her mother, there is a death in the family which brings grief, Bethany arrives on the scene as a top model and goes to Boston to see Alex. Nothing ever seems to go right for either Rosie or Alex.
Lily Collins and Sam Claflin portray Rosie and Alex over a period of 12 years, from 18 to 30, and have a good on-screen rapport. So, what begins like one of those raucous teenage films, drinking, loud music, fumbling sex, gradually becomes the story of adolescents moving into adulthood. Which means that it turns out better than might have initially been expected.
1. The title, the tone?
2. The Dublin settings, homes, school, workplaces, clubs? The English accents? The United States, Boston?. The city? The musical score?
3. Rosie and Alex from age 18 to 30? Rosie and the relationship with Alex? Friendship, love, others in their lives, change? Meeting throughout the years? Again at 30?
4. Rosie’s attitudes, wilful, the nature of the relationship, trust? The ;possible scholarship to the US for hotel management, unable to go? Their lives, Rosie’s parents, strong characters and their influence on her, supportive, a wise father?
5. Rosie’s, her personality, going, the party, Greg, her pregnancy, the secret?
6. Alex, hesitant, the relationship with Rosie, going to the University, reticent? With Rosie, unable to commit? Going to Boston, with Sally?
7. The years passing? The effect on each? Rosie and her work in hotel cleaning, friendship with Ruby?
8. Greg, Rosie, marrying, the ups and downs, their daughter? Bringing up the baby, childhood, growing up – problems and joys?
9. Rosie the visits to Boston? Sally, Alex and his life, the separation, Bethany and her arrival, the marriage? Her character, self-centred?
10. Greg and his infidelity, his keeping Alex’s letter, his moving out? Attempts to reunite?
11. Rosie, getting the hotel, the daughter? Making a life for herself? Her daughter and teenage tensions?
12. Bethany, her career, behaviour and motives? Alex, the separation?
13. Return, meeting Rosie, at last together, drawing on their experiences?
