Endless Love is not a great movie, but it does know exactly what type of movie it is and it embraces that whole-heartily. There isn't really a sense of real-world expectations (other than going off to college of course) and there is never any real feeling of impending doom despite the films attempts to continue to raise the stakes and put its characters in danger. If you saw the original 1981 film starring Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt you probably expected some of those stakes to pay off in different ways than this new version decides to take the facets of what is still essentially the same story. Surprisingly though, this new version feels very much like its own movie, like its own world and though it may be an imaginary world for many of us the film is able to deliver a convincing love story while never actually paying attention to the development of that core relationship. We understand the circumstances surrounding our two young lovers (portrayed by Brits Alex Pettyfer and Gabriella Wilde) and we see the doomed nature of their obsession early on and the mountain of obstacles facing them, but thanks to the charming performances from both of these leads we are able to somehow root for these young lovers that don't necessarily give us any reason to do so as far as why their relationship is so special, but because of little more than their dedication to one another and the films unapologetically optimistic view of love we go from believing this is nothing more than a summer fling (as most of the adults here do) to buying into these kids truly having a genuine affection for one another that could sustain itself for longer than the flutter in time youth is. Still, to enjoy even a moment of this updated tale of forbidden love you have to be willing to accept the movie on its own, melodramatic terms. Everything here is amplified from the posh superiority of some of the inhabitants of this lakeside town to the circumstances that some of our characters just happen to wander into. So, as long as you can take these characters and their heightened emotions and accept them as the conditions of the film you might find yourself enjoying this, if not, you'll alternate between laughing and cringing.
