Forever Mine

Forever Mine

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DVD Reviews of Forever Mine

DVD Review: It could have been great; still Fiennes saves it
Summary: 3 Stars

In 'Forever Mine', we have Joe Fiennes doing accents, both American and Latino. He plays Alan Ripley, a cabana boy in a fancy hotel in Miami. Alan is pretty much the 'good boy' type, and very good-looking too. One day he sees one if the guests coming out from the sea, Ella, a young woman played by Gretchen Mol. It is like a thunderbolt, because he falls for her at first sight.

The thing is, Ella is married to Mark, a dangerous politician without any scruples played by Ray Liotta. She is not happy with her marriage and happens to fall for Alan too. While Mark is on a business cruise, Ella and Alan become lovers. When Mark gets back and the couple goes home to New York, Alan tries to follow her. Ella confesses to her husband that she had an affair with Alan, the cabana boy in Miami, and Mark decides to have Alan arrested, then shot in the face. When he thinks Alan is dead, he leaves the body alone, but it turns out that Alan was alive. He will return 14 years later, rich, with a deformed face and a latino accent, under the name Manuel Esquema.

The problem in this film is a series of clichés and bad lines that the actors have to deliver, along with a surrealistic makeup for Joseph Fiennes as Manuel. I couldn't help missing his English accent (not that he doesn't sound convincing as an American; he does, but I couldn't help it). It is difficult to understand how Paul Schrader, who has written good screenplays in the past, could have such a lack of imagination. Especially when it could have been great, because he had everything to make it so.

Joe Fiennes plays a likable Alan/Manuel and gives a virtuoso and very passionate performance; Gretchen Mol does a good job, Ray Liotta makes you hate his character and so on. The love scenes are good, meaning the chemistry worked well between Fiennes and Gretchen Mol.

Now, I'm not putting the film down: I am getting the DVD and I recommend watching it. Opinions vary, and some critics have described 'Forever Mine' as a delighful romance. It's not that I disagree with them, I just think that Fiennes deserved a much better material to work on, better lines. So did the other actors.

I suppose this is one of those films you have to see and form your own opinion. I have heard people say they liked it a lot, others not so much. If anything, it is worth seeing for Joseph Fiennes, whose talent never disappoints.

Description of Forever Mine

Nonrecognition is always a tricky proposition in movies, but Forever Mine's problems don't end there. Fiennes, sans Shakespeare in Love beard and Bardlike charisma, doesn't begin to suggest a guy who'd inspire obsession. His costar's attempt at creating a soul sister to Emma Bovary is as underacted as it is underwritten, and Liotta's husband is just a lout, despite a desperate stab at giving him a virtually literary sensitivity regarding his romantic one-upping. You want a spellbinding Schrader movie about outré passion and literary mystery, look up The Comfort of Strangers. --Richard T. Jameson