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| Blue Jay - Life is living with your choices. You can't go back. |
Written by: Mark Duplass
Directed by: Alexander Lehmann
Starring: Mark Duplass, Sarah Paulson, Clu Gulager
Rated: --/R
Plot
Two high school sweet hearts reconnect when they meet while visiting their home town.
Verdict
This movie is an ode to lost dreams. Former high school sweethearts meet twenty years later and wonder at what could have been. It's a neat movie, intimate and touching, with great chemistry between the leads. It teases whether the characters will get together with a surprise of an ending.
While the premise feels slightly more like fantasy than reality, the natural dialog and morose mood craft a solid story.
Watch it.
Review
This is the Duplass brothers' first film under their four movie Netflix deal.
There was no script for the movie. Mark Duplass gave Sarah Paulson a summary and the rest was improvised. Though she doesn't get a writing credit, I assume Paulson contributed as much dialog as Duplass. This is very much a small indie film with a theme and dialog that carries it. Only one other actor even appears in the movie.
This is similar in structure to Before Sunrise (1995) or Before Sunset (2004), though Blue Jay is melancholic rather than optimistic. The majority of the movie is the characters trying not to let their minds wander to what could have been. When they were teens they imagined themselves being married forever. Twenty years later, life has a funny way of surprising you.
Jim and Amanda meet at a grocery store while visiting their home town. While their interaction is understandably awkward, I attributed it to lack of script rather than intention. The chemistry quickly pivots, and both characters becomes very natural together as the recall their youth. It felt very real, shedding any notion of improvisation.
A typical movie would conclude with them getting back together despite Amanda's husband. I wanted them to get back together, despite at the same not wanting this to became a trope.
AT one point, they sit at Jim's recently deceased mother's home listening to recording they made when they were teens imagining they would be married for twenty years and having already lied to the only other character in the movie, telling him they were married, that they were a high school couple that made it. The sexual tension is definitely present with more than a few longing looks.
The entire movie is in black and white. It's an interesting choice that never felt odd, it gives this an old home movie feel which is fitting for two characters reliving their youth, if only momentarily. Much of the film takes place in Jim's childhood room which has been largely undisturbed. This has an indie feel as most studio movies demand more plot.
Soon Jim and Amanda begin playing the "what if" game. What if they had stayed together? They begin role playing as a married couple, which is completely strange, but it's better than jumping into them having sex and making this like dozens of other movies. This is an emotional affair, and it creates a great undertone with two people wondering if they made a mistake. They take one night and pretend their lives took a different path, living a fantasy.
The fantasy concludes abruptly, and this takes quite a turn. I never wondered why they broke up, I just assumed they went separate ways, but this surprise development answers that question. These answers change the entire dynamic of their past interactions. It's a fitting ending, reinforcing that life is living with the choices you made. You can't go back no matter how much you wish you could.
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