ENDLESS
US, 2020, 95 minutes, Colour.
Alexandra Shipp, Nicholas Hamilton, DeRon Horton, Ian Tracy, Catherine Haggquist, Eddie Ramos, Famke Janssen, Aaron Pearl.
Directed by Scott Speer.
Endless is the Young Adult story, but especially appealing to teenage audiences who can identify with the central characters.
This is a variation on a ghost story, reminiscent of the romance in the classic 1990s Ghost.
Alexandra Shipp and Nicholas Hamilton play two young adult, in love, involved in a car crash where Chris, Nicholas Hamilton, is killed. Riley, Alexandra Shipp, blames herself. She is consumed by grief, adults with her parents wanting her to give up art and pursued law. There are two friends from school as well as the involvement of Chris’s mother.
Where the film is different is that Chris goes to a kind of limbo, meets another dead man, a guide, who explains his situation. He is able to communicate with Riley, she able to hear him. However, while this is a love story, it is also a story of having to let go.
Director, Scott Speer, made a very interesting variation on a ghost story, crime story, I See You.
- Young adult story? The appeal to younger audiences, teenagers?
- The American town, homes, studies, the countryside and roads? The musical score?
- Riley and Chris, ages, the family backgrounds, Riley and art, her parents expectations, the law? Chris, his mother, absent father? The relationship between the two?
- The accident, Chris’s death, Riley blaming herself, the detective and the enquiry, the car, the lights? Blame and guilt? The consequences for Riley and Chris’s absence?
- Chris, his death, going into a kind of limbo, the encounter with Jordan, Jordan’s personality, explaining the situation to Chris? Making contact with Riley, his presence, her hearing him? The bonding?
- Riley and her friends, their characters, support, her finding her way?
- Grief, blame, ghostly possibilities, love, the title of the film, yet letting go?
