Irish Film Institute -CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER

CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER

Director: LEE TOLAND KRIEGER

92 minutes, U.S.A., 2012, Colour, D-Cinema


Co-writer Rashida Jones (The Social Network) also plays Celeste in this gently bittersweet and amusing study of a modern unconventional relationship in which she and Jesse (Andy Samberg), friends since childhood, are coming to an amicable end to their marriage but finding it hard to let go of so much shared history – “but we’re still best friends,” they proclaim (what Roger Ebert calls “five of the saddest words in romance”). She has become frustrated at his lack of drive and is determined to build herself a better future, but when it’s Jesse who seems to benefit most from the break-up, quickly moving on to become more responsible and self-sufficient, Celeste, temperamentally incapable of being bested, goes into an emotional tailspin.

It’s an unusual premise from which to start, but the film avoids the usual clichés of the romantic comedy in its approach, finding sharp humour and observation instead in the distance growing between the two immensely likeable leads. (Notes by Kevin Coyne.) 

IFI IRISH SHORTS
This screening will include the IFB-funded animated short film narrated by Alan Rickman, Kealan O’Rourke’s The Boy in the Bubble. Rupert, a ten-year-old boy, falls hopelessly in love for the first time. When it all goes terribly wrong, he wishes never to experience heartache again. Turning to a book of magic, he invokes a spell to shield him from emotion forever. (8 mins, Ireland, 2011). Watch the trailer.

Book Tickets

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