Forget Me Not

I enjoyed this film a lot, it was more than I was expecting. It's not your standard romantic drama, and it's clear that there was no big budget or fanfare with this - but that's why I liked it. It meant that there was no distraction from the two main characters in the film and I could concentrate on their stories. Tobias Menzies plays his character with an understated confidence, he allows you to understand him and his ways in your own time. Genevieve O'Reilly is also good and plays a very likable character. There's a chapter of her story, involving her grandmother, which felt a little 'shoe-horned' in, and there may have been another way of introducing the subject of memory to the film in a less contrived way. I never saw the end coming (the two have a conversation at the end in which all is revealed), and the final scenes were really good - although nobody warned me this film was a weepy! All in all, a good film and I'm pleased to have watched it.

My kind of film, about two hurting people who accidentally meet and wander around the streets of London.....kind of like a dark "Before Sunrise." He, a troubadour, she, a bartender looking to start anew. Sprinkled with some nice songs and heartfelt feelings. Forget about action or comedy, it's human drama with a lot of what people do....talking. This really is what an indie film is supposed to be about, in my opinion, looking inside human beings. Also neat, the couple slow dances to a tune from an IPod kind of thing, with earphones in each of their ears. As for the acting, they do come across as real and so does the entire film.

Categorising the film as a romance may have done it a disservice. Yes, it's a love story but it's also about how we create a place for ourselves in this life through the stories we tell and our relationships with other people. Will is utterly decent, Eve is free-spirited and perhaps a little rootless but they're both in the process of changing their view of themselves and how they present themselves to others.

As a viewer, you always know more about Will than Eve does which develops a certain investment in the story. There are clues along the way to the secret we already know - it's easy to see how she misses them and the fact that she does means we develop an empathy for her simple optimism. There are also clues, right from the start, to the secret we don't know. Knowing what we know from the outset, it's easier for us to spot those clues and add them up than it is for Eve so the revelation is perhaps less shocking for us than for her; for us it perhaps feels more like an inevitability. It's a clever device that tends to pull viewers in rather than feeling overly manipulative.

Tobias Menzies as Will and Genevieve O'Reilly as Eve both give wonderfully natural and believable performances, making it easy to just lose yourself in the world of the film. Conversations ebb and flow, some things are unsaid, some things are never finished, just as they are in real life (what's the kicker in Will's most embarrassing story? We'll never know!). The London locations give it a "bigger" feel than many low-budget films.

It may be a romance, it may even be a weepy but I think it goes beyond that with a message that is ultimately positive and optimistic - don't be afraid to care and don't be afraid to let others care for you.

This film has a lot of potential. The cast, particularly the two leads, are great. The premise - two strangers meet and spend one long night falling in love - is perhaps a little predictable, but still holds charm. The setting - London city at night - is picturesque. However, the script fails to deliver and our two star-crossed lovers spend far too much of the film skimming the surface of well-worn conversation topics, trapped in cliché scenarios.

Lingering looks? Check. Conversations about God and the meaning of life? Check. Rain-soaked embraces? Check. Guy giving up his jacket? You bet. Bittersweet ending? Of course. Piano playing, swapping of embarrassing childhood stories, walks along rivers, revelations of painful pasts, spontaneous musical interludes - this film has it all.

That's not to say the film doesn't have its charms. There are some interesting twists in the conversation, and there are moments towards the end where the characters manage to break free, however temporarily, from their cookie-cut roles of Tortured Artist and Manic Pixie Dream Girl. The problem is that the formula has been done so often, and so much better. See: Before Sunrise (1995), Once (2006), Breakfast Club (1985). This film is by no means terrible, but with so many other good films available to watch, why waste your time?

Yeah, this film is amazing. The most underrated romantic drama of all time.

It's curiously a strange cousin to Lost in Translation.

Beautifully shot in London at some great locations. Cinematography is top notch.

Brilliantly acted. Just so gorgeous to look at. It deserves to be on Blu-ray. I would buy it to replace my worn out dvd.

Lovely London, great acting, great story.

Blah blah blah, why do we need to use 600 letters to explain how good a movie is.

It's really good, really great, really excellent.

Before Sunrise and Lost in Translation, yeah yeah yeah. It's just as good, so great.

London never looked so good.

I really love it, oh yeah!....