Previously adapted by Franco Zeffirelli in 1981, Scott Spencer’s 1979 novel returns to the screen as a glossy teen soap opera in the Aaron Spelling vein. Upon graduating high school, a sheltered rich girl (Gabriella Wilde) enters into a passionate romance with a mechanic’s son (Alex Pettyfer), despite her father’s efforts to keep them apart. None of the players exhibits much personality, but it’s hard to fault them, given how thinly the characters have been imagined by screenwriters Shana Feste and Joshua Safran. Bruce Greenwood seems particularly constricted by the role of the villainous father, a heart specialist who (ugh) doesn’t understand the nature of the heart. Feste directed.
Endless Love
PG-13 • 1 hour 45 min • 2014
