High school sweethearts Celeste and Jesse married young. The marriage didn't last, and as Celeste and Jesse Forever (Lee Toland Krieger, 2012) opens, the couple has filed for divorce. We could reasonably infer that a few years of marriage might have a maturing effect on a couple.
To judge by their go-to gratification gag, not so much. But then, this romantic comedy makes a point of carrying on without judgement. Celeste and Jesse's failings are shown without underscoring, thus lending intrigue to that very smooth hum of the screen story.
II.
Before they married, Celeste (Rashida Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg) were good friends. Jones and Samberg do fine work in portraying the easygoing warmth of the couple's friendship. In this respect, their decision to divorce doesn't seem so much the end of something, but more a reversion, to the couple's original friends-only status.
Celeste is an ambitious partner in a media company. Jesse is an unemployed artist, who projects the ambition of, well, continued slacking. With her focus on control, it was Celeste who took the initiative, and dumped Jesse, ending their marriage.
Celeste and Jesse begin to date other people with mixed results, all the while annoying their mutual friends with their ambiguous behaviour. It comes as little surprise that such ambivalence leads C.J back into each other's arms. Of little surprise too is that the return to romance doesn't last.
III.
Celeste and Jesse certainly have their flaws, and Krieger's film allows them to flail about, trying to find their way. An entertaining and funny film, Celeste and Jesse Forever may well leave you figuring how it went about its comedy.
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