Waiting for Forever

Waiting for Forever

Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Keach
Produced by James Keach
Trevor Albert
John Papsidera
Jane Seymour
Richard Arlook
Jack Giarraputo
Written by Steve Adams
Starring Rachel Bilson
Tom Sturridge
Jaime King
Nikki Blonsky
Scott Mechlowicz
Blythe Danner
Roz Ryan
Richard Jenkins
Music by Nick Urata
Cinematography Matthew Irving
Editing by Pamela March
Studio PCH Film
Distributed by Freestyle Releasing
Release date(s) February 10, 2010 (2010-02-10) (Santa Barbara)
February 4, 2011 (2011-02-04) (United States)
Running time 94 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Waiting for Forever is a 2010 American romance film directed by James Keach, starring Rachel Bilson and Tom Sturridge. The film had a limited theatrical release beginning February 4, 2011. It was shot in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah.

Contents

Plot

Best friends while they were growing up, Emma (Rachel Bilson) and Will (Tom Sturridge) lost touch a long time ago—as far as she knows. She is back in their hometown, because her father is sick and dying. Emma hasn't just come home to be with her father, but she is also trying to leave behind her complicated love life and career as a TV actress. She has a strained relationship with her mother. As a man and woman give Will a ride to back home, Will tells them the story of how he fell in love with Emma and how she was with him when his parents died. He is dropped off in Historic 25th Street in Ogden, UT. Upon arrival he visits his brother Jim, a banker, who believes Will has mental problems and is reluctant to have Will stay.

After seeing his brother is angry, Will stays with his childhood friend Joe. Will tells Joe today or tomorrow is the day he will tell Emma he loves her. However, Emma's boyfriend follows her home as he wants to reconcile, staying at a local hotel.

Will and Emma spend the day together, reminiscing on times passed. She admits her unfaithfulness to her boyfriend, who wants to marry her. She discovers Will has been following her and asks him to promise to stop. Will agrees and leaves town.

It is revealed that Emma's boyfriend has murdered the man with whom Emma was having an affair, although she is still not aware of this. Her boyfriend, when comes to know that Will stalked Emma to LA, calls the LAPD and claims it was Will who committed the murder.

Will decides to hitchhike away from his hometown. On his way he is arrested by the highway patrol and taken to jail. Jim bails him and takes him to the airport. He runs away to San Francisco, leaving behind money to make up for the bail his brother paid.

Emma is shaken with the news of her lover's death, and gets a letter from Will proving that he wasn't in LA when the murder was committed. She gets her boyfriend arrested.

Emma's father dies. Emma goes to Joe and asks him to tell Will that she is sorry for what she had said to him.

After Emma's father's funeral she receives a love letter from Will. She leaves for San Francisco to look for him, finding him performing on Fisherman's Wharf.

Cast

Reception

The film went into limited theatrical release on February 4, 2011,[1] and played from three to 14 theaters during its two-week run.[2] With a production budget of US$5 million, it grossed $25,517.[2] The film received negative reviews, scoring six percent on the film-critics aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.[1] Stephen Holden of The New York Times said, "More often than not, I felt suffocated by the gaseous sentimentality and lightheadedness of a story that drops in subplots that it can't begin to develop."[3] David Noh of Film Journal International found the Will character to be "nothing more than a stalker, and it is the premise of James Keach's idiotic simper of a film that you find his behavior not only somehow justifiable, but irresistible. ... Keach tries to amp things up in the last act by throwing in a supposed murder that is merely groan-inducing, especially when you realize that this will only extend the already excruciating exposition."[4] While acceding Noh's former point, Pete Hammond of Boxoffice nonetheless called it a "refreshingly pure, honest and original love story", and bemoaned that, "a small movie that sports no real exploitative elements except genuine human interactions is a tough sell."[5]

References

External links