Charlie Harper<\/em> covers the rise and fall of a relationship so smartly that by the end, I wanted the cheesy happy ending because I fell so deeply in love with both characters and the lessons they taught each other.<\/p>\n\u201cI know how it begins. I know how it ends. But when I think about it, everything in the middle is scrambled.\u201d This is a line in the film that perfectly sums up not only a love story, but also Charlie Harper<\/em> as a film, and how the story is told.<\/p>\nCharlie Harper<\/em> follows the telling of a couple\u2019s love story from high school, past college and into adulthood. From the moment they met until the time it all fell apart and after, but completely out of order. It seems like such a simple concept. How I Met Your Mother<\/em> and Definitely Maybe <\/em>follow similar ideas, but where Charlie Harper<\/em> differs is in the way the film tells a story two ways at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cCharlie Harper<\/em> covers the rise and fall of a relationship so smartly that by the end, I wanted the cheesy happy ending because I fell so deeply in love with both characters and the lessons they taught each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nHarper (Emilia Jones) and Charlie (Nick Robinson) are both recalling their relationship at different points in their lives: Harper, while she is at the beginning of the end, and Charlie, a time after. They aren\u2019t even really telling different versions, but with each moment, there is a new context that really changes the way we see it, and maybe how Charlie and Harper see it, too.<\/p>\n
The way each sequence in Charlie Harper<\/em> was filmed separately, but peppered throughout the film in pieces, was outstanding. Even if you knew where in the timeline something took place, there was always something new and surprising each time that we saw it. Whether it was an item that revealed something more, a handshake we didn\u2019t understand, or a tone that took on new meaning, there was always something new to discover that held weight to the overall story.<\/p>\nThere was also so much done with the film\u2019s style. Very \u201creal\u201d moments, vulnerable ones, were often shown in a grainy, slightly-less-shiny way, making the film feel the way the visuals do. Charlie Harper<\/em> also uses the wide aspect ratio to differentiate between moments, dividing the past and present. The editing team on Charlie Harper<\/em> deserves some serious props, not to mention the writer and director, Tom Dean (also directed by Mac Eldridge), who told such a beautiful, real story in a disjointed way.<\/p>\n\n