CPE
In Between (*1/2) is not far enough
They have a debate on the authenticity of Titanic, because of course they would.
Director Arie Posin
Screenplay Marc Klein
Starring Joey King, Kyle Allen, Kim Dickens, Celeste O’Connor
The In Between is a movie where our protagonist, Tessa (King) spends much of her time moping. Before she meets cute with the Skylar (yes, Skylar) of her dreams, played by Allen, she is moping because she was adopted by her foster parents after she and her step father had been “ghosted” by her mother. This meeting happens after she photographs Skylar from a distance on the beach looking all mopey himself.
They meet in a magnificent movie theater that somehow makes it’s money showing holiday themed old movies. This holiday is Valentine’s Day and the movie is French, Betty Blue. The subtitles aren’t on and he volunteers to read them into her ear, because, get this, he knows three foreign languages, Spanish, French and Italian. They talk about movies and unsurprisingly she likes movies with sad endings because…they mirror real life. They have a debate on the authenticity of Titanic, because of course they would.
The film has another track that starts almost immediately in the aftermath of a wreck that severely injures Tessa and kills her by then boyfriend, Skylar. This has her moping even more, but within all of the moping she sees signs that Skylar is trying to communicate with her. One of these signs is color pictures. She prefers black and white. He added color to her life. Of course Skylar would add color to her life.
If you don’t know where this film’s tracks are heading, then you have never seen better films, like, say Titanic. King is a decent actress, but she can and should produce better material for herself than this Lifetime level dreck. Dickens is almost always in better stuff than we see here. O’Connor, as delightful as she is, just plays a variation of her role in Ghostbusters Afterlife. I don’t remember seeing Skylar’s Allen before, and I am fine leaving it at The In Between. I am pretty sure he’s capable of moving up to Hallmark before long.
(*1/2 out of *****)
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 