In Continuum.

Some people got put off by the fact that this film, In Search of a Midnight Kiss in black and white. They think that by using black and white, it is a sad effort on the part of the director to make the film feel more "indie". Retarded claim, I know, but people has disliked movies for much less. Yes this movie is in black and white, yes this movie has a soundtrack filled with indie bands, yes this movie has actors and actresses I have never heard of before. Yet, it doesn't feel pretentious at all, simply because of how real and honest it is for the most part. Sure, there were parts that screamed of indie, but I thought the film still worked overall in trying to tell the story from a straightforward angle, you know? I like stories that demand your undivided attention, then there are movies that are just straightforward, and I like films like that as well. This is a straightforward story about a misanthrope seeking a misanthrope on the Internet, because he hasn't been in a relationship for the longest time. He moved from Texas to Los Angeles, has his own apartment and tries his very best to submit a script he wrote. Yet, his life was going nowhere, and so was his love life - or lack thereof. 

Convinced by his best friend Jacob, he sets up a profile on Craig's List and hoped for the best. Not too long afterwards, he receives a call from a mysterious girl who wants to spend a day with him on the last day of the year, the night before the New Year. He agrees, and the two meet in a cafe and spends the rest of the day together, just talking and hanging out. Think Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, but set in United States and more close to real life. I suppose the European setting in the above mentioned movies tend to give you a sense of surrealism, like you can never get over the fact that they are movies. This film, however, kind of feels like a documentary, or reality television if you please, though it does feel a little scripted at parts (The man that gives Vivian the flowers? Come on). Anyway, it is a simple story with very realistic characters we can all relate to, just two person hanging out for a day in the city. Wilson and Vivian goes from perfect strangers, to a couple that shares a cigarette, to a couple that confesses secrets to one another, and then the couple that goes on little adventures. My favorite scene in the movie has got to be the part when Vivian explains the website that she has of the pictures she took of lost shoes, and the conversation they had about fake happiness. I liked it. 

I have a feeling that this film was intentionally written to resemble Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. After all, it does have the producers behind the two movies, though it does not necessarily measure up to its greatness. Still, this film is a nice little companion movie I feel, with even more down to earth characters to relate to, and perhaps more gritty and life-like than some fairytale characters in a movie. The conversational topics aren't nearly as interesting and compelling as the ones in the other two movies, but the characters mesh together in a way that is similar to Jessie and Celine did in the Richard Linklater masterpieces. The two characters definitely hit it off really well, especially Wilson which I took a liking for. I have a thing for characters that are supposed to be losers, I just relate to them better. Vivian comes off as being a little annoying at the beginning, being too cynical and judgmental for the most part. Then she sinks in, and she grew on me throughout the course of the movie. The interesting part is always how the characters interact, and it was engaging enough for me to be enthralled. 

As much as I think that Nim, the main character's best friend's girlfriend is cute, it doesn't help by the fact that her love story with Jacob (the best friend) was a little bland. It wasn't very well developed, and it wasn't involving at all. We know that Nim is bored with the relationship, we know that Jacob wants to propose to her, and we find out how they met - so what? It is under developed and unnecessary, and a lot of time could have been dedicated to the actual story line between Wilson and Vivian. With a running time clocking at just over ninety minutes, you kind of want everything to be compact and not be wasteful. It is kind of sad that we could have learned more about the main characters if not for this little subplot, though that is not to say that it was bad - it was just a little redundant to me. 

Most conventional love stories in the cinema speak of happily ever afters, or at least they end that way to have a form of closure for the audience. Films like that do not bank on those predictable endings, but invests more time in the journey rather than the destination. The ending is satisfying, I feel, though I really didn't like the idea of how Jacob and Nim turned out at the end. Still, I thought it was more realistic that way, and things probably wouldn't have turned out half as well for the main characters, if they actually stayed together. This film is predictable in a sense that you kind of know what is going to happen, but you allow yourself to sit through the movie because you like to be a kind of voyeur through this process of seeing two people connect on a personal level. It is nice to see how the lives of characters in a movie reflects your own life somehow, when it comes to meeting someone new and then slowly becoming involved. It may not always happen at the end of the year, on some special occasion, but it is still special, it is still beautiful. Though this movie isn't half as good as Before Sunrise or Before Sunset, it is still a worthy movie for a comfortable morning like this one, and warms your heart in the cold winter winds. 

8/10