Endless Love Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Endless Love Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf June 29, 2014

The 2014 version of “Endless Love” has taken some drastic steps to avoid comparison to other incarnations of the same story. Originating from a 1979 novel by author Scott Spencer and adapted into a popular 1981 picture starring Brooke Shields (featuring an omnipresent theme song that ruined roller skating for everyone in the early eighties), “Endless Love” is a tale of dark obsession and manipulation, powered by a bittersweet quality that reinforces the dangerous games of affection played by the characters. The New “Endless Love” is defanged claptrap for 13-year-olds with no sense of how the world actually works, drained of any threat, heat, or logic as it manufactures a love story where idiocy is celebrated as laudable passion. If you’re familiar with the book or the earlier feature, this “Endless Love” won’t be recognizable. Imagine if “Star Wars” was the cinematic adaptation of “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” and that’s as close as co-writer/director Shana Feste gets to the source material here.

Jade (Gabriella Wilde, “Carrie”) is a brilliant, beautiful, privileged 17-year-old girl graduating high school, ready to move on to medical school at the urging of her controlling father, Hugh (Bruce Greenwood). David (Alex Pettyfer, “Magic Mike”) is her sensitive classmate, waiting years to approach Jade with his romantic interest. Sensing a chance during Jade’s graduation party, David makes a move, finding a receptive partner who’s never known love before. While Hugh disapproves of this union, Jade’s mother, Ann (Joely Richardson), senses an awakening in her daughter, with the teen growing passionate about David, defying her father as she pulls the son of a car mechanic (Robert Patrick) into her life. As the pair carries on a sexual relationship, David and Hugh trade threats, with the men holding information that could destroy each other, leaving Jade caught between her responsibilities and her heart’s desire.

Feste is the director of 2010’s gloriously overcooked “Country Strong,” which is a good indicator to potential viewers on just how hysterical “Endless Love” becomes. Feste and co-writer Joshua Safran merely take a few basic elements from Spencer’s book to inform their screenplay, doing away with troubling behavior and deep psychological wounds to portray David and Jade’s pairing as a primal bonding of kind souls looking for connection in an alienating world. Class divide remains (culture clashes do not) but isn’t emphasized outside of the odd scoff from Hugh, and the characters have been bumped up a few years in age to avoid any ideas that could jeopardize the PG-13 rating. The production has elected to avoid discomfort, the driving tone of the piece, to fashion an ABC Family take on this consuming affair as it moves from a summertime fling to breathless commitment. Feste doesn’t want to upset her viewers, she looks to play into common fantasies of romance without dissecting the wild swings of manic behavior that often motivates such fixation.

In this “Endless Love,” David is a hero. He’s caring, generous, and his only crime, which landed him in trouble with the law, was committed out of honor, giving him a juvenile record for all the right reasons. He loves Jade, allowing her to escalate the affair as the teenager pushes for sex and attention while her perfectly planned future crumbles around her. Jade’s established as a brilliant young woman forced into a cocoon of grief by Hugh after the loss of her big brother, yet there’s nothing in the film that backs up an argument of intelligence. She’s too easily blinded by newfound emotions, taking “Endless Love” into familiar terrain as she torches her goals to be with the first guy who looks her way. And David, being the gentle giant, doesn’t seem to support his girlfriend’s future, making her feel bad about a career direction any reasonable kid in 2014 would realize is a gift. There are no consequences here, only impulses, keeping the picture all shiny surfaces and cheery montages, with Hugh established as a domineering ghoul who just. doesn’t. get it. I’m all for innocent escapism from teen cinema, yet “Endless Love” transforms a complex situation of obsession into kitten play between handsome actors, taking the bite out of the premise and its melancholy payoff.

Also troubling “Endless Love” are flat performances from Wilde, who’s insignificant as Jade, and Pettyfer, who’s bland as David. They don’t share blistering chemistry, and their handle on sophisticated emotions tied to response and rejection leave much to be desired. The same inconsequence is felt with Richardson, who portrays Ann as a boozy pushover, failing to impact the tale as the character should. And eye-rolls greet David’s pal Mace, as actor Dayo Okeniyi treats the role as a Groundlings audition tape, always trying to be the most obnoxious figure in the frame. Success. Only Greenwood truly sings for his supper, trying his hardest to make Hugh’s position as a fallible father mean something beyond the insufferable cliché. There are moments when Greenwood’s emphatic work can be viewed from space, but his assertiveness is welcome in a movie where everyone seems to portraying a zombie.

Endless Love Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (2.35:1 aspect ratio) presentation truly captures the mix of soft and sharp that makes up the "Endless Love" viewing experience. It's a fresh image with boosted colors, offering rich primaries explored through varied costuming, while naturalistic hues are preserved for outdoor sequences. Skintones are true, with a pinkish quality that brings out the sensuality the production is aiming for. Blacks are communicative and stable. Fine detail is excellent, capturing nuance and texture from everything, including exposed skin to set dressing, permitting the viewer full access to frame particulars.

Endless Love Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Carrying a rather robust presence for a romantic picture, the 5.1 DTS-HD MA around mix on "Endless Love" isn't afraid to explore the surrounds. With party environments, a speeding car sequence, and a climatic inferno, the track brings pleasing movement and activity, pushing out the action instead of keeping everything rigidly frontal. Dialogue exchanges are crisp and easy to follow, and group activity is managed to satisfaction. Scoring is supportive and sharp, presenting warm instrumentation. Soundtrack cuts are equally gentle, never steamrolling over the onscreen action. Low-end perks up with scenes of catastrophe, also encouraging a rumble with bass-heavy tunes.

Endless Love Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Extended Ending (2:36, HD) adds more of a matrimonial focus to the conclusion.

• Deleted/Extended Scenes (29:45, HD) provide brief but welcome extensions of character, showing off personal interactions that are missing from the finished film, along with a few subtle creative changes.

• Making Of (17:59, HD) is a traditional basic cable featurette, highlighting cast and crew interviews that emphasize platitudes and character exploration, never digging into the depth of the production process. Some welcome BTS footage is spotted, but there's little substance here, and it's highly amusing how everyone interprets "Endless Love" as the ultimate statement of romance.

• A Theatrical Trailer has not been included.

Endless Love Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The fire incident that opens Spencer's novel is moved to the climax here, with its intention and resolution dramatically changed to once again make David the greatest catch on Earth. There's no sense of danger to "Endless Love" to combat its sweetness, and Feste's command of tragedy is akin to the discovery of an unused loaf of bread with some mold on it. Screwing up "Endless Love" isn't quite like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa, but Spencer had few provocative ideas on the body-quaking consummation of young love. This picture wants nothing to do such anxiety, relying on tiresome formula and fantasy to appeal to its target audience.