Written by Linda
March 08, 2009
This delightful and curiously stylish road movie charms with its awkward and uncomfortable characters.
For me, Jump Tomorrow rated as one of the delightful surprises of this year's Seattle International Film Festival. I have to admit, from the description alone, I was planning on skipping this one... but the scheduled film at the press screening didn't show, so they substituted this one instead. Yay for me!
What comes across on paper as your basic road movie, with the typical mis-matched characters chasing a girl across the state, turned out to be quirkier than expected, delightful for the fact that something was just a bit... off.
George (the hilariously dorky Tunde Adebimpe) goes to the airport to pick up his arranged bride, a childhood friend from Nigeria, in a match obviously set-up by their families. But he is a day late. Ooops. At the airport, he runs into a crazy Frenchman, Gérard (Hippolyte Giraoiat), who has just been dumped by his latest girlfriend, and Alicia (Natalia Verbeke), a cutie with equally nerdy glasses who invites him to a party after borrowing a pen at the phone booth. George is immediately smitten with this cute stranger, and the paths of the three characters cross and cross again and again as George tries to get to Niagara Falls for his wedding.
I found George to be absolutely hilarious. He is so awkward and square, with his grey suit and too-tight tie, that he walks as though he has a box drawn around him. His hesitant and uncomfortable smile made me laugh every time (maybe I could relate?). Plus the film has a really cool 60s set design throughout, that was curiously never acknowledged, especially for a modern film.
Jump Tomorrow is original, entertaining, and surprisingly sweet without being cloying (and you all know how jaded a movie-goer I am!). I'm going to keep an eye on new director Joel Hopkins!
