Celeste & Jesse Forever (2012)

Celeste and Jesse have been separated for 6 months, but he’s still living in the garage and they still do everything together. Neither is truly moving on and Jesse still holds out hope that it’s not over.

There’s an overlay of melancholy to even the lighthearted scenes that I wasn’t expecting. As their worlds inexorably disentangle, I found myself not sure of what I wanted to happen...which seemed to be in line with exactly what Celeste and Jesse were wondering themselves. It’s a thoughtful, emotional story with well-drawn and surprisingly sympathetic characters. And if I were in charge of casting things, I'd create roles just to make sure Chris Messina had a spot in whatever I was doing.

B