Most of us in life have to just simply pick ourselves up and get over it on our own when our hearts are broken for the first time. Ethan Hawke however went one better and wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about his own heartbreak and then adapted it into a movie that he also directed and acted in too. Maybe the fact that he was a tad too close to this story is why he rather lost his objectivity in the telling, which in turns makes you lose your interest in discovering if there is ever going to be a happy ending for either of the young lovers.
William and Sara meet in a bar and they take an instant like each other and find out they are both ‘artists’ (she sings, he acts) and they go home to play at being boyfriend and girlfriend. William gets a part in a movie being shot in Mexico, and he persuades Sara to accompany him for 6 days. Once there they really seem to fall truly in love, finally have sex, and act out just like they are on their honeymoon. At one point there is talk of an instant on-the-spot marriage, but that fleeting moment passes. Four weeks later and the movie wraps, and William hurries back to New York, but Sara has decided she doesn’t want him, or anyone, as a lover. She offers no further explanation and shows William the door.
William starts acting deranged and takes to stalking Sara where he alternates between passionately wooing her or haranguing her with abuse. Her abrupt coldness is hard for him to accept, and even more difficult for us to understand.
William’s parents feature in the story too as they conceived him as teenagers in the back of their Barracuda car. When William was 6 years old his parents were already divorced and fighting bitterly. and so his mother decided to leave their home state of Texas to come to New York for a better life. She ended up in a dead-end clerical job in New Jersey and was still angry having to settle for far less than she thought she deserved. On the occasion of William’s 21st birthday when he is still dealing with recently being dumped by Sara, his mother tells him ‘people aren’t going to love you back and you’re going to die anyway, so get over yourself.’
His father is still in Texas and has remarried and still breeding but never kept in touch with William despite his promises. Even so, at a loss to know what to do to win Sara back, William seeks his father out to see if he can actually step up to the plate and for once giving him some paternal advice.
The trouble is that William and Sara have essentially failed to interest themselves in each other, but they also cannot manage to evoke our sympathy that they are even worth our effort in trying to engage with them too. Particulary Sara who acts without any logical explanation and despite the fact she is played by the wonderful Catolina Sandini Moreno (‘Maria Full of Grace’) appears very one-dimensional. Mr. Hawke has written young William as a much better role, and Mark Webber (‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’) makes a fine job of trying to make both Sara and us like him. His parents are played by Mr Hawke and Laura Linney. Also one of William’s ex girlfriend’s Samantha (who is a lot less complicated!) is played by Michelle Williams.
At two hours long this tale of young unrequited love seems too painful, and I’m not sure if it’s because maybe it reminds us all that we have been there and it wasn’t fun, or maybe the reason is more straightforward and is just because we really never do care if this two make a bigger mess of it all than we did.
P.S. Great soundtrack
P.P.S. From 2007 …. its part of my
“catch up and see what i missed’ list … and is on DVD everywhere including
Amazon
★★★★★★
