During the lockdown, I heard about this movie called Endings Beginnings that featured a love triangle composed of Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan, and Sebastian Stan. On the merit of having those two handsome male leads alone, I decided to purchase it online and watch it.
The story revolves around Daphne (Woodley), who just broke up with her boyfriend (played by, to my delight, Matthew Gray Gubler from Criminal Minds). She just moved into her sister’s guesthouse and meets two handsome guys at a party who happen to show interest in her. These two guys, coincidentally, are friends and opposites of each other: Frank (Stan) is your typical bad boy, while Jack is the kind of guy you settle down with and bring over to meet your family because he just checks all the right boxes (so to speak).
As a recently single woman with two hot guys pursuing her, Daphne decides to see them both at the same time, which is a bad idea since, obviously, she was two-timing and was doing it with guys who were friends. It does not take a genius to figure out how this story will end. In one sentence, I can sum it up as, “You can’t have it all.”
According to the press about this movie, the actors were given free reign over their lines and were encouraged to improvise during their scenes. It was like the script was a suggestion rather than the direction the story was supposed to go. No surprise here that the movie ended up being a bit on the dragging side and honestly, as much as it pains me to say this of a movie that involves actors I admire, the story was boring. It was like it was trying to be more profound and thought-provoking than what it was, and it was trying to hit points in the story that just were not getting there. It does not matter how talented the actors are. If the story is not good enough, it is just not going to work. It was a wasted opportunity since these actors are all so talented.
A little side note: the intimate scenes between Daphne and Jack compared to Daphne and Frank showed just how different these two guys were. It was amusing to see the former Mr. Christian Grey (Dornan) having an intimate scene completely covered by a blanket after watching him in the 50 Shades of Grey movies. Since his character was the conservative one, this was not surprising. Sebastian Stan’s scenes with Shailene Woodley, on the other hand, were a bit on the raunchy side and supported the bad boy image of his character.
I was looking forward to enjoying this movie, but I was disappointed by it. Maybe it was my fault since I was expecting too much, but I felt that the movie could have been better. I would have loved more scenes with Matthew Gray Gubler that explored the history of their relationship. I thought Jamie Dornan could have had more scenes not just with Shailene Woodley but also with Sebastian Stan – something to further establish their friendship and how different they are from each other.
If you are a fan of the three actors, you might want to watch this movie. At the same time though, you might also NOT want to watch it because you will probably be disappointed. I guess the right way to put it is to say that you should manage your expectations about this movie. My opinions are my own, and I am in no way a professional film critic so other people might think differently about this. But as an ordinary fan who loves a good romantic drama, I did not like it.
Sebastian Stan was hot in it though.
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