Image: Universal Pictures

Having previously watched Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 film adaption of Scott Spencer’s romance novel ‘Endless Love’, I went to see the remake starring Gabriella Wilde and Alex Petyfer with an optimistic mindset. Remembering the 80’s adaption, starring a young Brooke Shields, as a fiery and somewhat over the top melodrama I thought, surely, director Shana Feste couldn’t have strayed too far from the original.

The story revolves around a couple of star-crossed teens, David and Jade. Jade, a privileged girl with a controlling father has plans to go to med school. That is until she meets Jake, who really throws a spanner in the works. Jake is automatically deemed unworthy for Jade by her father due to the fact he’s an auto-mechanic. Slightly unreasonable considering how much mechanics can make these days, as well as the fact we’re no longer stuck in the eighties. Anyway, the film revolves around these two implausibly good-looking teenagers, who incidentally look as if they should have graduated years ago, as they battle for their love in a series of over dramatic and rather unnecessary events.

So, although the movie had the premise to be a fantastic modern update to an already great story, it falls rather flat. The film was supposed to be about a first love so intensely passionate that houses were set on fire and restraining orders were dished out. Sadly Feste didn’t so much as rewrite the original as completely reconfigure it. Although there were great moments of cinematography throughout, the actual story line was somewhat unrealistic and one can’t help but feel as if this your typical teenage love story, straining to be deeper and more meaningful than it actually is.

Joy Haggard