May 10, 2022
Much to the disapproval of her mother Victoria (Andie McDowall), 18-year-old Auden West (Emma Pasarow) decided to spend time with her estranged father Robert (Dermot Mulroney) in the beach town of Colby, where he now lived with a much younger second wife Heidi (Kate Bosworth) and an infant named Thisbe.
In Colby, Auden worked on the accounting of Heidi's botique, which was manned by three teenage girls, Maggie (Laura Kariuki), Leah (Genevieve Hannelius) and Esther (Samia Finnerty). It did not take too long for Auden to figure out that Robert was still very much more into the book he was writing than his family as he had been before.
In one of the late night walks she took because of her insomnia, she met 20-year old boy Eli (Belmont Cameli) and struck up a friendship with him. Eli noted how Auden had been unable to experience the usual fun things that teenagers were supposed to be doing. On the other hand, Auden saw how a tragic past experience was keeping Eli from going for his dreams.
This was another one of those Netflix young-adult romances where the characters were portrayed by actors who were older. Belmont Cameli is 24 years old, and Emma Pasarow is even older at age 26. However, despite being in their first lead roles in a feature film, both Cameli and Pasarow looked good and did well in their portrayals, despite their awkward romantic chemistry and some unlikely things they were made to do (really, a food fight?).
I was more interested in the storyline about Auden's parents, who were played by two stars from 90s romcoms. Andie McDowall (now 64) played Victoria as the snobbish uptight mother, yet insecure in her confidence. Dermot Mulroney (now 58) played Robert as the brilliant yet clueless father who gave his daughters pretentious names and blamed everyone else except himself. 2000's star Kate Bosworth (now 39) played Heidi as cheerful and flaky young mother, yet dealing with hidden pain as well.
The cliche formula being followed in this film was very predictable. Two loners meet and hit it off quite well. Each one would push the other about something they are not ready to deal with, thus causing friction between them. However, by the third act, both of them realize that the other was just being a good friend trying to encourge them to get over an issue that was holding them back. It would have been nice if their insomnia was explored more. 5/10.
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