Filthy Romantic Drama Review - 'Endless Love'

Endless Love (2014)

Review by Jude Felton

If you know me, you will know that I like to mix it up in terms of what I review here. It’s very easy to get stuck in a rut, reviewing the same genre time and time again. Plus, when I first saw the trailer for Endless Love I was left asking a few questions; I wasn’t really sure what the trailer was trying to get across…inititally. However, as you might have guessed, Endless is exactly as it would first appear to be; and that is your typical teen love story, albeit a rather charming one.

Your basic plot concerns Jade, a young rich girl with a sad past, who becomes the object of desire of David, and his attempts to woo her. Obviously it’s not as simple as that, with Jade being the reclusive sort, ever since the death of her brother. On top of that, David is your salt of the Earth sort, who’d rather work with his father (Robert Patrick) at his garage.

So, what you have is your young love, from either side of the proverbial tracks, that has it set-backs and side plots, and it’s all quite predictable. That being said, just because a story is predictable does not mean it can’t be entertaining, and that is the case here. Alex Pettyfer, as David, is charm personified and plays the role very well. Jade is played by Gabriella Wilde, who you may recognize from the recent Carrie redux, and plays her part with a delicate vulnerability.

The supporting cast is also played with conviction, especially Jade’s father (played by Bruce Greenwood). I would have liked to have seen more of Robert Patrick, who is always fun to watch, as he adds a grounded sense of realism to proceedings.

As a film, Endless Love does not have the emotional depth or scope of such romantic faire as The Notebook, as it is a film on a smaller scale, but it kept me entertained and even though I knew where it was going it still delivered what it set out to do.

So, if you are looking for something in the young love, kind of thing you’d see on the CW, type of movie, to watch with your respective partners, you could do a lot worse than stick Endless Love on. The solid cast helps elevate the film above the predictable and clichéd plot, and as a result deliver pretty much what you would expect from the film.

Endless Love is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital now from Universal.