Longing. 2024.
Written and Directed by Savi Gabizon.
Starring Richard Gere, Diane Kruger, Shauna MacDonald, Wayne Burns, Stuart Hughes, Suzanne Clément, Tomaso Sanelli, Tony Nappo, Kevin Hanchard, Jessica Clement, Marnie McPhail, Alex Ivanovici, Larry Day, Christina Song, and Jessikah Roberts.
SYNOPSIS:
A business mogul runs into his old small-town girlfriend while she is visiting the big city, only to find out that they have a child together that he was unaware of.
Generally, if a film is unhinged, it instantly announces that tone. For whatever reason, writer/director Savi Gabizon’s Longing (an American remake of his original award-winning Israeli version) takes its time suckering viewers into what starts as a decent enough, compelling mystery with Richard Gere’s wealthy businessman Daniel Bloch reuniting with his estranged former significant other Emma (Shauna MacDonald), discovering that he has a 19-year-old son from the relationship who has recently been found dead in a car accident. This is also helped by Richard Gere taking the material seriously and giving a commendable performance, quietly curious and taking in various details, good and bad, of what his son was like when he was among the living.
However, as the story introduces characters such as a best friend talking about a drug deal that went south (perhaps it was related to the death), an obsessed 16-year-old girlfriend named Lillian (Jessica Clement), and a French teacher (Diane Kruger) whom Daniel’s son developed an unhealthy, inappropriate infatuation with, suspicion settles in of whether this movie has anything to say about those different types of romantic longing or if it’s all going to be an excuse to spiral into something exploitative and downright tasteless. Even if you assume the answer is the latter, one likely won’t expect the depths of the film’s seedy accomplishments.
In the film’s defense, it’s at least believable and mildly compelling to observe Daniel investigate whether or not this French teacher, who had been going through a rough patch in life, might have done anything, even if it was subconsciously, to endorse or normalize the son’s inappropriate attraction to her. One can easily imagine a competent mystery centered on that dynamic, with the filmmaker reaching a greater point.
Longing is not that movie; instead, when Daniel visits the cemetery, he comes across the grieving father of a dead 18-year-old girl who committed suicide and was depressed throughout her life. This father laments that he never got to see his daughter get married, assuming that love would have taken away the urge to take her life. Somehow, this opens the door to something referred to as a “Chinese ghost marriage,” where the two fathers decide to meet up with the respective moms and decide if their children should get married in the afterlife, complete with a wedding reception. Maybe if there weren’t questions about the son’s death and multiple instances of relationship drama going on here, this would have been fascinating to explore. Instead, it’s a ludicrous, whiplash deviation that doesn’t fit.
Dear reader, if you thought that would be the most baffling plot point of Longing, that is nothing compared to the backstory involving the already questionable age gap relationship between Daniel’s son and Lillian. If the point was to say something about the depths to which parents will love their children and look the other way regarding horrible things they have done, it’s lost in the equally confounding ending. The problem isn’t that the film contains references to immoral behavior or depicts a father defending it, but more that it is used for exploitative twisty shock value that isn’t used to expand upon the characters in any pertinent way.
At times, Daniel also seems to fall into the same patterns as the son he didn’t know, trying to get into the headspace of what the boy was like when stalking his French teacher, which is at least intriguing from a perspective on what we inherit from our parents, even the ones we never knew. There is undeniably something odd and cold about Daniel, a rich man who thinks money can solve any problem. Unfortunately, nothing would solve any of Longing‘s issues, which has been lost in translation from its apparently revered Israeli version, now a pile of pointless insanity.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
