Forever My Girl Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Forever My Girl Blu-ray Movie Review

It actually just feels like forever. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 25, 2018

Part of Forever My Girl’s rote plot dynamics involve a man getting to know the little girl he never knew he had, and realizing that she is exhibiting some of his same talents, in this case in the arena of music. I have no idea of the age differences involved, and am of course saying this in jest in any case, but if I were Nicholas Sparks, I’d be wondering if maybe source novelist Heidi McLaughlin or Forever My Girl's writer-director Bethany Ashton Wolf might be my long lost daughter, because she certainly has the Sparks- ian combo platter of romantic dysfunction and picturesque countryside down pat, albeit infrequently at even the sometimes middling levels of actual cinematic adaptations of Sparks’ works. It’s hard to know where to begin with something as formulaic as Forever My Girl, but some indication of how predictable yet inept this film is may come courtesy of the fact that I was evidently unconsciously sighing loud enough during my viewing experience that my wife popped her head in the room to make sure I was okay (that is not a joke, despite it being funny, lest anyone think otherwise). Forever My Girl starts with a festive wedding in Saint Augustine, Louisiana, and already some eye rolling may accrue as almost the entire “casual” conversation in the opening sequence is about the new country music success of groom Liam Page (Alex Roe). Bride Josie (Jessica Rothe) seems unaffected by her soon to be spouse’s stardom, and that turns out to be a good thing, since Liam jilts her, never showing up for the ceremony. It’s the stuff of country music heaven, though in this case it should probably be Josie rather than Liam who’s doing the singing.

Eight years later Liam is a headliner at the sort of arena rock venue that most musicians can only dream of. Things seem to be going well for Liam, down to an including the groupie he has bedded after a concert, but there’s a hint of angst when the girl tramples all over an old cell phone of Liam’s that has most definitely seen better days. That may be one indication that Liam is holding on to artifacts from earlier days, an all too obvious symbol that Saint Augustine is (not to pun too horribly) calling him. When a buddy of his who was actually slated to be one of his groomsmen is killed in a car accident, Liam decides to be the prodigal country superstar and return home, where you can pretty much predict each and every thing that will happen next.

Liam doesn’t venture into the church where the funeral is taking place, and yet he still manages to (re)meet “cute” with Josie, who is there with an adorable little girl named Billy (Abby Ryder Fortson) in tow. You can probably instantly guess who the father is, though Forever My Girl takes a little while to actually get there, detouring instead into a bit of drama as Josie decides to throw anger management to the winds, giving Liam a good old fashioned punch to the abs, while, in what passes for cleverness in this film, it’s revealed that Pastor Brian (John Benjamin Hickey) who had been giving the eulogy in the church is actually Liam’s estranged father (of course).

If you’ve seen any of the many cinematic adaptations of a Nicholas Sparks piece, you may well be able to predict the romantic obstacles that accrue, only to have true love triumph in the end. The whole nascent (or renascent, as the case may be) love angle never catches fire here since the focal actors, while undeniably “scenic” in their own ways, just don’t create much on screen sizzle. What tends to work here, albeit in fairly sugary amounts, is the growing relationship between Liam and little Billy. Fortson kind of walks away with this picture with her spunky take on the little girl, and maybe Forever My Girl might have worked better had she, rather than her parents, been the real focus.

Forever My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Forever My Girl is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Technical data on this shoot is fairly hard to come by (at least that I've been able to find), but this looks like a fairly generic digital capture production, though there are some occasionally kind of bizarre moments where things like framing and focus pulling are on the (literally) shaky side. The Georgia locations provide a lot of luscious scenery, and much of the outdoor sequences have considerable depth of field and an appealing palette. Some interior footage, specifically a lot of the household stuff featuring Pastor Brian, Liam and Billy, has relatively anemic contrast and a much softer appearance than the bulk of the presentation. A tendency to feature "magic hour" shots with the sun peeking out from the background introduces just the hint of banding on a couple of occasions, but otherwise there are no other compression issues.

Forever My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Forever My Girl features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that attains some energy in the early going courtesy of the brief concert footage featuring Liam. Even with some intermittent musical elements, though, this is a fairly talky affair that tends to derive a lot of its surround activity from relatively subtle ambient environmental sounds, effects that tend to perk up appreciably in the outdoor scenes. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly, and the music is full sounding, without any distortion or other issues.

Forever My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Photo Gallery: Forever My Girl (1080p; 1:48)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:31)

Forever My Girl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Without spoiling anything too overtly, you know you're in perilous territory when failure to perform the Heimlich maneuver turns out to be a salient plot point that brings back an all revealing flashback that finally makes a character's odd decisions suddenly understandable. Some of the "acting" in this enterprise may not even meet "not quite ready for prime time" levels, though little Fortson is actually quite winning as a highly intelligent young girl who doesn't suffer fools (including her parents) gladly. That said, even lovers of star crossed love stories may find Forever My Girl a bit hard to stomach at times, but for those who are considering a purchase, technical merits are generally fine.