Broken hearts at core of ‘Charlie Harper’

    At first, the intent of the romantic drama “Charlie Harper” seems confusing, jumbling time and place almost to the point of distraction. Even the title is misleading. It does not refer to one person, but to the first names of the couple involved in what we know from the outset is a doomed relationship. But as the film progresses, you fall in line with its nonlinear structure and realize the goal of first-time directors Tom Dean and Max Eldridge is not to convey how a passionate love affair died, but how it lives on in the prism of skewed memories.

     In many ways, it’s a distant cousin of Charlie Kaufman’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” albeit significantly less surreal and impactful. What entices you has little to do with Dean’s underwritten script, but with the appeal of stars Emilia Jones (“CODA”) and Nick Robinson (“Voicemails for Isabel”), who instill authenticity in what proves an affecting tribute to the joys and heartbreak of first love. Much like Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones in the superior “Normal People,” the two rising stars capture the dizzying highs and wrenching lows of a couple too in love with love to foresee the multitude of pitfalls lying in wait.

    Nor can they envision how maturing at vastly different rates will lead to their ultimate doom. While Robinson’s Charlie is content to drink and hang with the guys in perpetuity, Jones’ Harper is in myopic pursuit of becoming a gourmet chef and owning her own restaurant in the Big Easy. For a while, they work around it, but when good-time Charlie’s antics and party-hard ways threaten to jeopardize Harper’s dream, things start to get real.

     Dean and Eldridge do an effective job eliciting mood and tone through filmmaking techniques such as lighting and soft focus, but they and editor Sam Levy are less adept at making it easy to locate when and where we are in the progression of Charlie and Harper’s five-year liaison. Jones’ changing hairstyles help, as does the shift from small-town America to the bright lights and flavors of New Orleans, but when you’re so busy attempting to orient yourself, it’s difficult to focus on the story at hand.

    To my amazement, all the dizzying back-and-forth does nothing to lessen the emotional impact or relatability of two people not meant to be together, despite their intense love for each other. The film is at its best late in the game, after both have processed their grief and share a bittersweet encounter, much like Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were,” or Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood in “Splendor in the Grass.” The sadness is palpable, but so is the recognition that their enduring love will live on, coexisting alongside the “might-have-beens.” 

    For them, it’s clear that despite the hurt and disappointment, the opportunity to have loved and lost has proven immeasurable in defining who they are and what they’ve become. Perhaps the best line in the movie summarizes their breakup as “watching time play backward, and the person you were closest with slowly becomes a stranger again.” How we choose to remember them and the nostalgic feelings they spark may be subjective, but it will always remain real, whether it’s true or not. Irrational, yes. But oh so human.

Movie review

Charlie Harper

Rated: R for language, some sexual content and drug use

Cast: Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson

Directors: Tom Dean and Max Eldridge

Writer: Tom Dean

Runtime: 102 minutes

Where: In theaters Sept. 25

Grade: B-