Forever My Girl
Dustin Chase
The title sounds like a country song and the movie looks like it could replay on CMT for years to come. Forever My Girl is the first truly awful film of 2018, as it checks nearly every box for a stereotypical modern-day romance. The guy screaming a girl’s name while standing in the rain (check) is summoned home by a tragic accident (check) and realizes he has a child with the woman he left at the altar (check). “This is moving way too fast,” our leading lady Josie says, so let’s back up. Set in Louisiana, Forever My Girl is native writer/director Bethany Ashton Wolf’s first feature film. Wolf seems to be aiming for the Southern version of 50 Shades of Grey without all the kink but lacks one single original idea throughout the production.
Eight years ago, Liam (Alex Roe) didn’t show up to his wedding, leaving his hometown bride Josie (Jessica Rother) devastated. She left him a voicemail days later that he would listen to every day during his rise to become one of country music’s most popular artists. Tragedy beckons him home to deal with the mistakes of his past finally. The animosity between Liam and Josie is softened when he realizes he has a daughter. “I said I wanted to meet him,” 7-year-old Billy (Abby Ryder Fortson) says. “I never said I would be easy on him.” With the music world pulling him back into the spotlight, Liam must decide to grow up and take responsibility or continue running from his past.
It’s such a fantasy film with a predictable ending you see from the moment someone says, “he ain’t coming” during the wedding in the prologue.
British actor Alex Roe (The 5th Wave) is camouflaged with a low-brim beat-up baseball cap and reflective aviator sunglasses to mirror the image of country star Eric Church. The stereotype checkmarks begin even before the film reaches second gear. Wolf depicts Liam as a moron, which I am completely cool with. (It’s high time male characters were being portrayed as dumb blonds. But the endless scenes of Liam asking how to use a credit card or how to buy things online feel quite unrealistic. “I’m not a fully formed human being,” he says. Neither is this movie. Another example is that Wolf doesn’t seem to understand human nature; Her script has Billy saying/doing things an elementary school child would know better.
The narrative of the film flows like a conveyor belt. When Liam first reunites with Josie, she sits beside a tall, handsome man. Predictable, it is later revealed (in dramatic fashion for the viewer) that the man is actually her brother, and she has stayed single. John Benjamin Hickey (Transformers) has one scene where he tries really hard to cry as his son lies drunk, half listening to his confession. He even brings his fingers to his eyes twice, but just like the audience, he can’t find the heart to care. The entire town and cast of characters do not represent real people or an actual place. It’s such a fantasy film with a predictable ending you see from the moment someone says, “he ain’t coming” during the wedding in the prologue.
Final Thought
Taking advantage of slow box office season, a movie that should be on CMT or Hallmark, somehow gets approved for the big screen.