Best movie of this year hands down!

just watch it!

Instant Favorite.

Best movie ever!

If you liked Garden State or About Schmidt then this is the movie for you. It's the search for yourself through the search for love. I laughed out loud several times and thoroughly enjoyed the strange and quirky ride. Why doesn't this director do more? I think the world wasn't ready for this film in 2001 but in 2005 it fits right into the mold. I caught this movie on a slow Sunday afternoon on the IFC Channel and my family kept running out into the living room wondering what was making me laugh so loud. Especially enjoyable was the lovable French sidekick that's too enthusiastic and too scared to be alone. My favorite scene is when he and the lead character chase the girl into the Lovers Lodge and then mix it up on the dance floor with the promo girls from the leather store. Their box dance is classic!

There's actually a French-Canadian film titled "Chance or Coincidence" aka Hasards ou Coincidences (1998), written and directed by Claude Lelouch (of "A Man and A Woman" 1966, "Les Miserables" 1995) with the lead character played by his partner Alessandra Martines. It may be Lelouch's usual esoteric charming style, yet it's an endearing film with layers of imaginative drama, dashes of life philosophy, the eternal man & woman relationships, 'travelogue' cinematography and jazzy music."Jump Tomorrow," written and directed by Joel Hopkins (his debut feature 2001), has all the above ingredients at an easy attainable level: I really like the music choices incorporated into this light and fanciful road movie, how the different vignettes somehow linked by chance and coincidences. It's an endearing romantic comedy. The choreographed impromptu moments, of 'ladybug' love a-flourishing so naturally - even the wedding ceremony scene, how the groom and his bride confessed and happily trotted out the church leaving the congregation still seated in awe (dumbfounded). The whole 97 mins. just flow so congruently together. Conflict/arguments, second thoughts, pause/rethinks, dance a little, eat & drink some, more energetic dance, rendezvous in quietness, change of minds, lost and found, split of hearts, 2 hearts unite, sharing a phone booth in the rain. So charmingly enjoyable. There is subtle poetry in the framing of shots/angles, the repeat of symbolic imagery here and there. The cast is marvelous: Tunde Adebimpe is George (Jorge) - don't let his looks or deadpan face/voice fool you, what an interesting central character. Natalia Verbeke is Alicia - the object of the opposite attraction, ladybug enchanted. Hippolyte Girardot is Gerard - the indispensable 'road shadow/angel' to George, prompting/rescuing George in his heart's pursuit. James Wilby is Nathan (companion to Alicia) - practically a cameo role, poking fun at himself - a lax and disheveled Wilby we seldom get to see. Brief but welcoming: Abiola Abrams is Sophie, George's (Spanish) understanding fiancée. Patricia Mauceri is Consuelo, Alicia's (lively) widowed mother. Gene Ruffini is the wistful (deafly) observant 'old man' of Consuelo's household. I caught the film on cable (Encore) Love Stories channel, and repeatedly enjoyed it as it's shown again. It's also available on DVD. The film was an expanded version of a 30 mins. B/W short that Hopkins made in 1998. Perhaps my thorough enjoyment of "Jump Tomorrow" is that I was unaware of the short (which had rave reviews). If you feel like a dose of fanciful romantic (road) story for a relaxing relish, check out "Jump Tomorrow."

At the risk of sounding like an old grouch, I found Jump Tomorrow to be an incredibly predictable and lightweight rom com. Director Joel Hopkins has a decent eye (witness the early scenes at the loft party), but his screenplay is extremely undernourished and suffers from indie film disease. Yes, it's another film where a group of wacky fish out of water eat, dance, fall in love, and overcome adversity together, all to another fairly generic soundtrack of alterna rock (plus John Lennon's Instant Karma). The film even has the temerity to rip off the big scene from Francois Ozon's Water Drops On Burning Rocks. It's all quite likable, but comfortably unambitious.

Among the good ideas that make that film funny I would pick the one with 'Jorge' embodying a true macho in some telenovela. I think this is definitely the most effective dodge of Jump Tomorrow. Some others are quite funny too (even the cliché crazy Frenchy). But it lacks rhythm on the whole. It's like your hear a good joke, call a buddy to tell it and then the next joke is just cooking.Funny but it could have been directed a lot more lively.