Chasing Valentine

I saw this film at the Willson Oakville Film Festival, which took place at Film.ca Cinemas.

I don't think I was the intended audience for this film... the audience as far as I could tell averaged a good 10 years older than myself. That said, as somebody who cannot sit through most films in the genre, it had my full attention and I was happy to see it broke the mould and didn't play out any of the standard tropes that we've come to expect of the weekly American romcom.

Don't expect a high budget Hollywood production here, but look forward to a stellar performance by some unknown Canadian actors and proud displays of Toronto scenery throughout the film.

Recently saw this film at a festival and was blown away. On the outside it seems like another typical romcom, but once you get into it you really see it's much more than that. It's so important for films like these to have likable characters and Chasing Valentine really nails that part. The acting is spot on. You really get a sense of who they are from the very beginning and cheer them on along the way. The comedy is definitely there and in the right places and in the right amounts, not overdrawn or too inappropriate, which tends to be a problem with films like this. Not to mention that the film simply looks great. Nothing "independent" about this one, not that it's a bad thing, but the term "independent" really gets a bad rap in the mainstream. Definitely recommend catching this one if you can! Solid all around!

Or is it nightmares? Or just puns? Well for me it would be the latter I reckon (so no pun intended is just what I like to say - I guess deep down I do intend them - most of the time, all the time - Anchorman aside, let's do this).

The story is not original or anything great in particular. He's just a boy, looking for a girl ... to love him (pun? Intended? Who me? Nooooo) - in any way I guess one can imagine. Not saying that it happens ... but you can tell what he wants early on.

But do "good" guys ever get what they want? On the other hand, this is a movie ... also how much will you really care? Questions over questions and not many you really really want answers to. Anyway, it is a decent movie, with a decent plot, if you can dig and empathize with the main character ... nothing more, nothing less.

I guess I will be the fifth reviewer for this movie. The first two reviewers gave it a ten star rating meaning it was to them the perfect movie, one of the best movies they ever saw. Then after clicking on their IMDb alias you come to the (non-surprisable) conclusion that they never reviewed another movie before. The third reviewer didn't rate it with stars but his review was also about how stunning this movie was, and so you can guess how much other reviews he wrote before this one, none. The fourth and last review is from a guenine person, somebody that actually watched it and gave his honest opinion. Not an opinion that I share as I thought Chasing Valentine was a boring slow movie, with not much action or thrilling moments, and with just a mediocre cast. That's the only thing I have to say about this time-waster. IMDb should ban all reviewers that rate just one movie with the maximum, because it's just ridiculous nobody does anything against that.

Chasing Valentine (A nice play on words in the title) tells the story of chase (Adam Langton) whose last relationship ended badly and resulted in an unexpected bereavement. Wracked with guilt two years on and still unable to connect with people and finds himself to still clinging to the memories of his ex with her old answer phone messages that he plays continually to keep her in his life. His friend who runs a local bar convinces him to come out for the night resulting in him meeting Valentine, (Gwen Cumyn) a strange English girl who he then wakes to find having crashed in his flat the next morning. Valentine has a job on the side as a fantasy cook (a non sexual culinary chef who cooks for clients with adult over tones) who has some secrets in her past and lives her life through different identities, including one she masks for her current boyfriend, a drug and gambling addict. From there things get more complicated.

Chasing Valentine is an off the wall love story, fresh an original which is a film very well anchored by the performances of the two leads, especially Langton who is extremely convincing as Chase, while Cumyn brings a nice complex layered performance as Valentine. The supporting cast especially Jen Pogue round the film out nicely too and the film is both funny and moving without resorting to too much pathos. Only the make up in a couple of scenes let it down but that's really a minor quibble, there's so many other nice touches to the film such things can be overlooked. The use of the blackboard as an allegory for the personas of the clashing characters is but one to mention. This is a great little film which might feel set in a relatively small world but has a heart far bigger than most. Recommended.