This is Us is the special kind of romantic drama that isn't obnoxiously vulgar and egregiously cheesy, it's a sweet and contemplative story of two people who meet, fall in love, cause irreparable damage to each other, live with resentment towards each other, and facing the inevitable possibility of separation. It's not some warm, sugary romance like Channing Tatum was forced into repeatedly leading up to 21 Jump Street, and thankfully it's not for the crowd-pleaser of Target Mommy porn like Fifty Shades of Grey, where they fly helicopters, wear stupid masks and expose.
Lines written by a writer with the subtlety and intelligence of a 14-year-old girl plagued with severe TBI and unrestricted access to HBO and Cinemax after 10pm in the '90s. This is the kind of romantic drama that feels real. This is Us features moments between the two leads that are uncomfortable to watch because it feels like we're really stuck in a room while these two fight.
Director: Jerry J. White III
Writer: Raymond Creamer
Stars: Amelia Brantley, Raymond Creamer, Ceasar Romero Evans Jr.
We hate it when they make mistakes, we hate them when they make irrational decisions based on heightened emotions, and we just want them to stick together and get along for God's sake... Shit, watching this movie is like watching it. Mom and Dad meet, fall in love, and stumble toward a tragic divorce. This is Us makes its audience feel levels of emotional investment that most modern movies in its genre can't even match.
This movie doesn't threaten us with a predictable happy ending where all problems work themselves out and everything works itself out in the end, but instead serves as a sobering reminder that sometimes, even after all the things two people have been through, it just doesn't work. I'm not saying the movie ends on a sad note, I'm just saying it keeps you guessing and never feels bad.
This Is Us begins with Daniela (Jessica Lynn Parsons) and Brendan (Raymond Creamer) on the beach, obviously in love and holding each other tight. Next, we see Daniela tell Brendan that she doesn't love him anymore. The film artfully jumps to various points in their relationship at breakneck speed, and for some reason this narrative device really works for me here. We see some of their most brutal fights juxtaposed with their sweetest and most tender moments. Jessica Lynn Parsons and Raymond Creamer (who also wrote the movie) are amazing together. I think Parsons has some weak moments with her performance, but overall she does fantastic, and like I said before, the power of this movie comes from her ability to feel real.
Daniela and Brendan are easy to cheer for as a couple, and when things start to go downhill for them, there's no clear bad guy on the scene. Lots of movies try to cast the guy as the jerk who ruined everything with his womanizing, or his inconsideration, or the woman as a heartless bitch who gets away with backstabbing and lying, but that rare This is sometimes the case in real relationships. and it's refreshing to see this reflected on screen. You like Daniela and want her to pull herself together, and you hate Brendan for screwing things up, but you hope that somehow he can use his charm and humor to make it all better. As the movie progresses, he deviates from the norm by giving Daniela the power to revive certain instances with the limited power to change them.
There's no explanation or explicit rules for time travel and honestly it doesn't affect things as much as it could, but it does raise a lot of interesting questions. Would you go back in time and avoid meeting someone you would eventually fall in love with knowing full well it wouldn't work out in the end? Sure, you'd save yourself the heartbreak, but you'd also miss out on all the good times and lessons learned. Would it be worth it? Fantastic questions that I wish this movie had explored a bit more. One of the best scenes in This Is Us is watching Daniela wake up at the party where she met Brendan, seeing him from afar and realizing that she has the power to stop all of this before she starts. She leaves abruptly and breaks down in tears, realizing that she just erased all those special moments between the two of them. It's an eerily sad scene that changes when Brendan shows up to introduce himself despite Daniela's initial efforts to sabotage her story. His chemistry, particularly in this scene, is perfect.
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