While the concept of this movie could have been interesting, the execution was bad and uncomfortable.
Instead of focusing on Elise (Brianna Hildebrand) and her no doubt difficult adjustment back into a society that has aged 20 years in her absence (which for her was the blink of an eye), we instead are given perspective of a middle aged man, Jack (Todd Grinnell), struggling with his decision to leave a wife that he has built a life with to pursue the barely legal "one that got away", who he dated for one summer at age 18, and who he is now 20 years older than both mentally and physically.
The transparency that is shown in painting Maggie (KaDee Strickland) as the "bad wife" is painful. The intention, over the course of the film, is for the audience to begin to see Maggie as overbearing, cold, bitter, and 'un-fun', giving Jack all of the excuses he needs to leave her in the end and pursue his much younger ex-girlfriend. However, the writing here was bad, in my opinion, and made this move far too obvious and with thinly veiled misogyny to boot. In reality, I sympathized with Maggie over Jack, and seeing Maggie so abruptly turn bitter and oftentimes downright rude took me out of the story completely. It's 2022, why are we still writing stories about women hating each other?
A work focused around Elise could have been so interesting and layered - showing her assimilating back into life when everyone she knew has moved on and the mental and emotional struggles that come along with that, alas. Overall, this is another man's mid-life crisis fantasy played out on screen.
1/10.
Instead of focusing on Elise (Brianna Hildebrand) and her no doubt difficult adjustment back into a society that has aged 20 years in her absence (which for her was the blink of an eye), we instead are given perspective of a middle aged man, Jack (Todd Grinnell), struggling with his decision to leave a wife that he has built a life with to pursue the barely legal "one that got away", who he dated for one summer at age 18, and who he is now 20 years older than both mentally and physically.
The transparency that is shown in painting Maggie (KaDee Strickland) as the "bad wife" is painful. The intention, over the course of the film, is for the audience to begin to see Maggie as overbearing, cold, bitter, and 'un-fun', giving Jack all of the excuses he needs to leave her in the end and pursue his much younger ex-girlfriend. However, the writing here was bad, in my opinion, and made this move far too obvious and with thinly veiled misogyny to boot. In reality, I sympathized with Maggie over Jack, and seeing Maggie so abruptly turn bitter and oftentimes downright rude took me out of the story completely. It's 2022, why are we still writing stories about women hating each other?
A work focused around Elise could have been so interesting and layered - showing her assimilating back into life when everyone she knew has moved on and the mental and emotional struggles that come along with that, alas. Overall, this is another man's mid-life crisis fantasy played out on screen.
1/10.