Bluegrass Films, Fake Empire, Universal Pictures,
Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson, Robert Patrick, Rhys Wakefield, Dayo Okeniyi , Emma Rigby
David Elliot (Alex Pettyfer) is a bit of a loner, living with his single dad, a very blue collar kind of guy. When he meets Jade Butterfield (Gabriella Wilde) in school, he falls for her very hard, and they are instantly attracted to each other. Puppy love comes on fast and furious, but Jade’s parents have real plans for her. They’re wealthy and have connections and though at first they’re okay with this crush, they decide it’s best to separate them. But they soon find that young people are very stubborn when it comes to young love, and things go south pretty fast.
First of all, I’m probably not a good person to review this, as I was really blown away by the original film in 1981. In fact, I was so touched by the film, that I immediately went out and bought the book and read it. This film was certainly shocking in 1981. The hippie generation was now, for the first time, dealing with family life and family values. Jade’s parents were very progressive thinking, smoking pot, living the hippie lifestyle. When their high school child is caught having sex with her boyfriend in the family living room in front of the fire, Mom decides to watch and reminisce her “free love” days of the 60’s and says nothing about it. That was stunning in 1981 as my Mother would have killed me twice, then skinned me alive, and then killed me again. But by the time I saw it, it was the 80’s, not the 60’s and I had a family of my own, and it caused me to think for the first time of how I was going to reconcile my values and morals on my kids when they were old enough. This 2014 version is not shocking or stunning. The subject has been dealt with 30 years ago and it’s not really relevant today. They tried, rather desperately to bring this up to date and make it seem fresh, but it didn’t accomplish that. Plus I’m sorry to say the actors in this film right down the line were far inferior to the original ones. But I give them the benefit of the doubt that it’s tough to really get into a 1980 story that is not a “period piece”. This is another example of a remake that didn’t need to be remade. I don’t think, in this case, that the 1981 movie is far superior to the 2014 one. It’s not really that. It’s just that the story is not worthy of a remake 33 years later. I also have no idea why they changed around the ending so drastically and completely changed the story. I was shocked by that and completely confused as the new one didn’t make any sense to me at all. I have no idea why they did that.
If you are interested in the story, the 1981 version is available for download all over the place. No need to go out an pay for this inferior replica. It’s not worth it.
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