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April Flowers
USA 2017
produced by John Dillon, Montserrat Mendez, Phil Newsom, Christopher Tedrick, Lanie Zipoy, for Myopia Pictures, MozzleStead, Polyphony Creative
directed by Christopher Tedrick
starring Celina Jade, Jon Fletcher, Kate Middleton, Keir Dullea, Sean Cullen, Mia Dillon, Trevor Kluckman, Simon Wheeldon, Gannon McHale, Joe Boover, Natasha Dewhurst, Elizabeth Frandy, Pegah Rashti, Liza Cassidy, Shavonna Banks, Rebecca Spiro, Alex DiMambro, Pascal Yen-Pfister (voice), Helen Stern (narration)
written by Christopher Tedrick, music by Lynn Wright, Jon Petrow
review by Mike Haberfelner
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For April (Celina Jade), love is more of a mindgame than an actual
emotion, something that has to be thought over again and again and again,
and if a suitor doesn't fit her profile to the letter, he needs to be
dumped - and yet, April always feels lonely, feels she needs love in her
life. And then a stranger accidently drops his journal in the subway, and
when April finally manages to pick it up and wants to return it, he has
exited the train and the doors have closed. So April starts to read the
journal - firstly lying to herself it's only to find out the contact of
the rightful owner ... but she reads on and on and on and becomes quite
fascinated by the writings, and she actually falls in love with the writer
- or thinks she does, as she has never actually met the man, and there's
no contact info in all of the journal. So from the little info the journal
holds for her she pieces together on the very rough where the unnamed
writer may live and puts up posters there - to little avail but she runs
into a guy, Jared (Jon Fletcher), who she at first believes to be him -
only Jared isn't, and never claims otherwise, but he still asks her out,
and she accepts, and the two become a happy couple. For a time, everything
goes well, in fact better than everything ever in April's lovelife, and
she really ought to hold on what she has got ... but then she picks up a
new clue on the mystery journal writer - and risks everything just to find
out about him ... 2001-veteran plays a Vietnam veteran who has an
original way of keeping the memory of allm whom he has lost alive ... While
most of today's romantic comedies have long become formulaic mush designed
to appeal exclusively to its key demographic, April Flowers is
actually quite an original example of its kind, by and large staying away
from genre clichés and instead presents the audience with an intelligent,
at times actually thoughtful story, interesting, fallible characters, and
an ending that's surprising and goes above "... and lived happily
ever after." Basically, the point here is, this is not just good for
a romantic comedy, this is actually a pretty good film!
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