Parceiras Eternas

I am not too sure whether I like this movie or not. It doesn't grab me, but on the other hand it's not too awful.

I enjoyed it to a point. It's a light hearted friendship comedy. I thought that the dialogue was excellent, on point, intelligent and well thought out; but I don't believe that the story went anywhere, it was a bit meandering, somewhat like this review!. I didn't think too much of the acting ability of the leads, but the supporting cast was uniformly excellent.

I would still recommend it to men and women alike, but not as a priority must see.

This theme is certainly nothing new, it's one of the most overdone, well, ever. But the film still manages to entertain, it's certainly easy going enough and pretty easy to watch. The chemistry between the actors works, and both of the leads make their characters fascinating enough. The film has some screenplay issues, some scenes here and there that just don't work well enough and that are cringe-worthy, so much so that I can't call this a great film no matter how easy it is to see. Some plot lines are also resolved a little too neatly and conveniently (Gillian Jacobs' character in the end). Still, despite several flaws, it manages to work.

Life Partners (2014) was directed by Susanna Fogel. Sasha--Leighton Meester--is best friends with Paige--Gillian Jacobs. Sasha is a lesbian, and Paige is straight. Neither of them has a problem with this--there's no romantic interest, but lots of love.

Enter Tim--Adam Brody--who falls in love with Paige. (There's a movie in-joke here, because in real life, Brody is married to Meester.). Tim and Paige are engaged, and living together. The movie takes a strange turn at this point, when Paige backs into a neighbor's car. She refuses to take responsibility, which bothers Tim. This theme apparently was required to fill out a 95-minute movie. The whole business was trivial.

The real theme, in my opinion, was the inevitable break between Sasha and Paige. The theme of female friendship being broken when men become involved is old--think of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. It may be old, but it still resonates. I think that's what this movie really was about. It's certainly a theme worth exploring.

We saw this film at the Dryden Theatre as part of the well-chosen offerings of ImageOut, the Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on DVD.

If it weren't for the biphobia in the film (the one bi/sexually fluid character is portrayed as unstable and "not gay enough" to be with), I probably would've given it a six or seven. This is far too common in media, and the stereotype is damaging.

As it was the film did portray well some of the issues of growing up and how it affects one's friendships.

I did relate to some of the issues the women went through.

It doesn't really reach very deeply though, and the ending is rather lackluster.

There was some good humor in the film, but the writing really needed polishing.

It was nice to see a mainstream film portray a non-straight main character.

Gabourey Sidibe was sorely underused as a minor supporting character.

This is not "12 angry men" or "Citizen Kane". But it is very good in its own genre. That's why I'm giving it an 8. It's a feel-good movie that does not pretend anything else and that's the reason why it works. There's a chemistry between all the characters and even the small role played by Beth Dover makes you laugh. I guess it depends on how old you are and how seriously you take yourself in order to enjoy something like this where Sasha and Paige are going through some changes in their lives and how society expects them to be. The ending is a little hasty though. All and all, I prefer that than having something like "Divergent" lasting more than 2 hours just because as if the story were far too complicated.