Endless Love makes me almost wish I’d loved with reckless abandon in my youth

I’m not going to go into this review by bashing Universal Pictures’ Endless Love for being a remake of the 1981 movie of the same title. I had never really seen the original Brooke Shields movie until this week when I watched it on Netflix out of curiosity. And if you want my honest opinion, I think I actually prefer the remake because the original movie was just too bizarre and pointless with its plot for my tastes (but I’ll harp more about that later).

Starring Gabriella Wilde and Alex Pettyfer as star-crossed, doey-eyed lovers Jade Butterfield and David Elliot, Endless Love is about two teens who fall madly in love with each other with the reckless abandon that can only be found in youth, much to the concern of their parents. The movie begins with the two just graduating from high school. Apparently David has been watching Jade from afar, though she never knew it because she’s been socially withdrawn since the sudden death of her older brother several years earlier. The two get to know each other better and embark upon a whirlwind romance that moves more rapidly than Jade’s rich, somewhat conservative parents (especially her father, played by Bruce Greenwood) would like.

Although this is technically a remake, this version of Endless Love is a far cry from the original. For starters, they actually give us a story arc to work with; whereas the original just threw these majorly undeveloped characters at you and told you they were madly in love. It never bothered to show you how they met or why they fell in love – it just expected you to not question any crucial story elements at all and to just go with it. Secondly, the remake does a good job of making the main characters more likable. Spoiler: David isn’t the creep who sets fire to the family’s home and spends years locked up in an insane asylum as a result. Also, this version of Jade seems like a more well-rounded, unspoiled young woman with a bright head on her shoulders than Brooke Shields’ airhead character was.

The original movie might have done a slightly better job of making the passions come alive, but maybe that’s because its plot twists were so unexpected and because it was dealing with far darker story elements. Can I also just say I am now extremely relieved that there was not a scene in the remake in which the parents had walked in on the teens having sex? That scene in the original with the mother standing on the stairway watching them for a good five minutes before going back to her bedroom smiling to herself has got to be one of the strangest and most uncomfortable things I’ve witnessed in a while. It really boggles my mind that the original was billed as the “greatest love story of all time.” It was certainly nothing like what I had anticipated all these years.

Don’t we all wish (albeit some of us might be more reluctant to admit it than others) somewhere deep down inside of us that we had experienced a summer after high school graduation like that of Jade Butterfield in the remake? What must it have been like to be this skinny, Ivy League-destined, intelligent, rich blonde white girl in her own orbit of seemingly endless perfection? What would it feel like, I wonder, to have had someone as seemingly sweet and soulful as David approach you and confess they’ve been watching you from afar all throughout high school with a deep crush on you? What would it have been like to have spent the hazy, lazy days of summer at a beautiful lake house with your beloved? I think the reality is most of us will have never experienced anything like this, so the plot is a bit unrelatable. I know I certainly never did. No matter how many times I watch teen classics like Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Can’t Hardly Wait, I’m still waiting for my insanely romantic crush letter that has never emerged.

While I liked the two main characters better than their original counterparts, if I’m being honest, the two breakout performances for me were the roles of Jade’s older brother Keith, portrayed with some emotional depth by Rhys Wakefield (I also loved him as the creepy stranger at the door in The Purge) and David’s best friend Mace, hilariously played by Dayo Okeniyi (who it turns out has a local Hoosier connection, having graduated from Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, which I found really cool being an Indianapolis native myself). I guess I’d also have to give the dad some major acting credit. He plays being a grief-stricken man unable to deal with the unpreventable death of his oldest child extremely well. At times, you really hate him for the way he treats his family and his rude behavior towards David. Then there are other times when you are forced to ask yourself how you would keep your grief in check and the realization that your youngest child wants to fly away from the nest before you’re emotionally ready for her to do so, if forced to walk a mile in his shoes.

While I would not go out on a limb and say this movie was “soooo good” as the fairly young, airhead-sounding girls behind me at the theater gushed on and on afterwards, I will say it is far more enjoyable than the original Endless Love. The plot remains predictable at all times, but I didn’t mind watching it unfold as I munched happily on my popcorn. If anything, the movie just makes me jealous of the fact that I’ve never experienced a love with such reckless, uninhibited abandon. I guess for now my endless love will have to remain writing. I’ve also had the song by Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross from the original stuck in my head for days now. And if it’s stuck in your head now too, you’re welcome. Happy Valentine’s Day!