We've come to expect well written, believable characters from Paul Schrader, and with Forever Mine, Schrader gives us interesting characters in Alan Riply and Ella Brice. Beyond those two; however, the characters seem anachronistic and with a too modern sensibility by comparison. Schrader has said he likes to make romantic melodramas every ten years or so, the previous one being The Comfort of Strangers from 1990, which turned into an erotically twisted tale. Forever Mine is a combination of 19th century romanticism, Film Noir elements, and cinematography done in the style of a Douglas Sirk melodrama from the 1950's.
Joseph Fiennes, fresh from his success with Shakespeare In Love, plays a cabana boy who falls in love with a hot-headed politician's wife at a beach-front hotel. Gretchen Mol plays the politician's spouse as a trophy wife longing for the romance missing in her life. We get a sense of her troubled married life that she herself does not wish to admit due to her Catholic beliefs. Schrader alludes to this further in the film with the passages Mol's character reads for the elderly from Madame Bovary, the Flaubert novel about extra-marital love. Fiennes, through the progression of the plot, becomes transformed into a confident, romantic gentleman one would find in a 19th century romantic novel, like Madame Bovary for example. He wears a long overcoat, is costumed in browns, and sports facial hair reminiscent of the era. The dialog between Mol and Fiennes contains flowery touches one would not expect to hear elsewhere, further evidence Schrader concocted a special world for Mol and Fiennes only. The film's flashback use also parallels similar usage in Victorian romance novels.
Gretchen Mol easily migrates back and forth between appearing as a proper housewife on one of Douglas Sirk's sets to a romance-starved woman who can't get enough of Alan Riply; once she decides to go his route. No small obstacle between them is Ella's husband, Mark, played by Ray Liotta with almost a maniacal intensity. Liotta's aggressive tenaciousness eventually clashes with Fiennes' assertive confidence. Liotta will not lose Ella and Fiennes will not give her up. Does anyone ever wonder why all of this clashing male tension isn't directed toward the woman in these films? The noir elements are the plot devices: meeting by chance, Catholic guilt, a woman coming between two men, a guy getting in over his head by getting mixed up with a woman above his social station, intense romance vs. intense violence, and most significantly the color cinematography reminiscent of black and white efforts of years ago, utilizing multiple angles for repeat shots on the same sets and different tinted lenses to contribute the film's shift in mood or tone. Schrader films the same staircase in at least three different ways depending on who is in the scene. He also makes liberal use of pink, blue, and green lenses to achieve the unique lushness in some scenes that recall the films of Douglas Sirk.
The editing also plays a huge role in the film. The cutting between the past and the present, from the beginning on, deliberately sets up the contrast which later occurs between Riply and . The choice of locations even illustrates the unreal quality lustful romance has at the beginning and the more practical life resulting from it later on. The pink hues in nearly all the beach-front hotel scenes give way to more ordinary colors later in the film when reality sets in for Ella's husband. Then again the colored lenses are used when Ella and Alan are paired in scenes, underlining the other worldly quality a romance like no other is supposed to have.
Problematic for many viewers is the transformation of Alan into Manuel and whether or not Ella and Mark would remember him from the past. I have to agree here. I had a similar experience with a girlfriend from the past I had not seen in 14 1/2 years. I bumped into her at a jazz club years later. I never spoke to her or acknowledged her, as she was with someone else. However, I recognized her instantly, despite the fact I only went out with her a couple months. Like many Victorian romance novels, Schrader requires a willing suspension of disbelief regarding plot devices and contrived situations. Ultimately, Mol is the most interesting character to watch, and the cinematography and editing turn the film into something better than it has a right to be. **1/2 of 4 stars.
Joseph Fiennes, fresh from his success with Shakespeare In Love, plays a cabana boy who falls in love with a hot-headed politician's wife at a beach-front hotel. Gretchen Mol plays the politician's spouse as a trophy wife longing for the romance missing in her life. We get a sense of her troubled married life that she herself does not wish to admit due to her Catholic beliefs. Schrader alludes to this further in the film with the passages Mol's character reads for the elderly from Madame Bovary, the Flaubert novel about extra-marital love. Fiennes, through the progression of the plot, becomes transformed into a confident, romantic gentleman one would find in a 19th century romantic novel, like Madame Bovary for example. He wears a long overcoat, is costumed in browns, and sports facial hair reminiscent of the era. The dialog between Mol and Fiennes contains flowery touches one would not expect to hear elsewhere, further evidence Schrader concocted a special world for Mol and Fiennes only. The film's flashback use also parallels similar usage in Victorian romance novels.
Gretchen Mol easily migrates back and forth between appearing as a proper housewife on one of Douglas Sirk's sets to a romance-starved woman who can't get enough of Alan Riply; once she decides to go his route. No small obstacle between them is Ella's husband, Mark, played by Ray Liotta with almost a maniacal intensity. Liotta's aggressive tenaciousness eventually clashes with Fiennes' assertive confidence. Liotta will not lose Ella and Fiennes will not give her up. Does anyone ever wonder why all of this clashing male tension isn't directed toward the woman in these films? The noir elements are the plot devices: meeting by chance, Catholic guilt, a woman coming between two men, a guy getting in over his head by getting mixed up with a woman above his social station, intense romance vs. intense violence, and most significantly the color cinematography reminiscent of black and white efforts of years ago, utilizing multiple angles for repeat shots on the same sets and different tinted lenses to contribute the film's shift in mood or tone. Schrader films the same staircase in at least three different ways depending on who is in the scene. He also makes liberal use of pink, blue, and green lenses to achieve the unique lushness in some scenes that recall the films of Douglas Sirk.
The editing also plays a huge role in the film. The cutting between the past and the present, from the beginning on, deliberately sets up the contrast which later occurs between Riply and . The choice of locations even illustrates the unreal quality lustful romance has at the beginning and the more practical life resulting from it later on. The pink hues in nearly all the beach-front hotel scenes give way to more ordinary colors later in the film when reality sets in for Ella's husband. Then again the colored lenses are used when Ella and Alan are paired in scenes, underlining the other worldly quality a romance like no other is supposed to have.
Problematic for many viewers is the transformation of Alan into Manuel and whether or not Ella and Mark would remember him from the past. I have to agree here. I had a similar experience with a girlfriend from the past I had not seen in 14 1/2 years. I bumped into her at a jazz club years later. I never spoke to her or acknowledged her, as she was with someone else. However, I recognized her instantly, despite the fact I only went out with her a couple months. Like many Victorian romance novels, Schrader requires a willing suspension of disbelief regarding plot devices and contrived situations. Ultimately, Mol is the most interesting character to watch, and the cinematography and editing turn the film into something better than it has a right to be. **1/2 of 4 stars.