Rating: 4/4
Length: 1h 35minutes
Director: James Ponsoldt
Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Novel by: Tim Tharp
Stars: Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley
Country: USA
13. September 2013
"There are two sides to every story" a quote that excellently describes this movie. Mrs.Perfect and mr. sometimes a complete asshole. Meet Sutter (Miles Teller) he's mostly a very nice, charming young man who gets along with everybody. He talks himself out of every scenario whether it being an argument with a teacher or a fight with his mum he's a great negotiator. Now meet his blind, angry and idiotic side, this side of Sutter is a complete asshole, he can hurt every single human being that is close to him while being in this state of mind.
He has just broken up with his girlfriend, and the movie starts out him remembering the good ol' days with his ex Cassidy. He's a character that grows more and more mature over the course of time. In the beginning he's a young 18-year-old man, who just doesn't want to grow up, thinking that partying, drinking and living in the moment is all that matters. He's a bit of a player, that being said now meet Aimee (Shailene Woodley ) she has never had a boyfriend before, she's a smart, quiet and very beautiful girl who draws and reads a lot, she's not the most popular girl in the school but she has one of the biggest heart imaginable example: While driving in a car with Sutter, Sutter rages and starts yelling at her, he doesn't pay much attention and then "Bang" he drives off the road. Aimee starts asking if Sutter is okay not caring about her own health at all.
After a heavy drinking Sutter wakes up in an unfamiliar place, in an unfamiliar lawn, awakened by Aimee. It's the sight in their eyes, the walk and talk that melts your heart from that point on. That leads into a nice and cosy talk between these two and since Sutter has lost his car, Aimee takes him home. Excellent acting has made both of them reach the unreal stage of chemistry on-screen. Sutter invites Aimee to a party, while still being in love with her ex Cassidy none of them actually want a relationship in the first place. It's his very first kiss with Aimee that boosts our knowledge of their relationship and everything gets real. It's a complicated love story that luckily has no "Cheerleader" nor "Joke" coming between them, realistic course of love in its finest naturalism.
They fall in love quickly and that leads to their first making of love scene, every detail leads them to that point where they have been together long enough and want to know each other better. It's so realistic that it's a one in a million, a jackpot people don't notice how rare it is today. Doing it nice and sweet, respecting each other, Aimee gently gives Sutter a condom with a warm smile on her face, they both ask if you really want to do that. Rarely we can say this thing about love scenes in movies, this is not a love scene that they should be embarrassed about it's a gentle, realistic stage of relationship that has been directed with excellence by James Ponsoldt.
Both Aimee and Sutter have their own problems, mostly with their family. Aimee's father is dead and her mother takes a bit of advantage of her while Sutter's father has been gone half of his life and his mother not telling anything about it. They promise each other that they will both stand up against their mothers.
It's not a snow-white fairytale that has one big obstacle to over come and then everybody is living "Happily ever after" in the end. In real life it's a lot more complicated and in this movie it's brought out like never before, everyday struggles affect your relationship. We can be sure from the start of the movie that Aimee would not cheat on Sutter nor do anything that could affect their relationship at least not in a bad way. Sutter in the other hand is not very stable guy he can hurt people sometimes. You can try to predict the story but you are not going to be absolutely certain till the end, challenging is not to change your predictions as the story moves on.
Made in a realism moviemaking style and creative visions and unique camera angles have been used. Don't go to the cinema with hopes up seeing a cliched, cheesy and ridiculous love story, "The Spectacular Now" is none of it, it's treated with honest and intelligence, pure effort and heart has put on this movie, it's not using characters for its own egoistic purposes they are falling in love like any normal couple would do in real life. "It's fine to live in the now but the best thing about now is that there's another one tomorrow and I'm going to start making them count."
