Relationships. The initial meet, the connection, and then that strive to make things work if, and when possible. We know not everyone is destined to stay together, and we know we just have to keep searching. Good or bad, everyone takes something away from each attempt until the right one arrives. When that happens things change. A couple can easily finding themselves adapting to the others less than stellar personality traits.. Adapting to whatever their other half throws their way. "Alex & Jamie" is one such story. A romantic comedy with a twist. A unique way to tell a love story of sorts. Different actors playing the same characters through various stages of a relationship. From start to finish. Sounds like a cool idea right? It is. What's better is that it works for the most part. Each set of actors brings something different to the table. By different I mean completely different. "Alex & Jamie" is not just about different actors playing the same roles, it's about these various actors playing the roles the way they want. A different spin completely of the same characters, which is where I found the title of this film, the names of these characters - very, very fitting, clever and another great idea in itself. To be honest I was quite surprised how much of a difference an alternate take on a person could be. What's even more interesting is that contained within these different, yet the same characters, a similarity existed that I'm not totally sure was intentional. The one constant was the draw these two people, Alex and Jamie, had for each other. I truly believe that the same thing occurs in real life. Through the good and the bad... if it was meant to be, people are simply drawn to one and other. This felt like a universal truth that even these numerous actors, playing the same parts, seemed to share. Probably without even knowing it. But the real treat of this film is simple. Watching the story of two people, through the eyes and actions of various different couples. It's amazing how you find yourself actually "looking" for similarities or patterns. I myself noticed a trend of "cell phone bashing" that actually made me chuckle more than a few times. I can relate. The real fun I had however, was looking for anything I thought may be a repeating pattern. Something that maybe writers Brian Flaccus and Chadwick Hopson slipped within the script, such as the cell phone jokes/not really jokes. By the time the credits rolled one simple fact remained. I had fun with this one. I suspect a lot of other people will as well. What ends up being really cool about this film is the casting and acting. Rarely does an indie film have so many leading actors, that all do fantastic jobs. Come to think of it, rarely does a studio film with a massive cast have such a great acting portfolio. Generally, when you're talking this amount of people, only a studio blockbuster does the trick. "Alex & Jamie" is one of those rare birds that really make you shake your head and wonder how? I'm pretty sure the direction from Brian Flaccus contributed quite a bit... but still, that's a large number of people and quite an accomplishment. Both for himself and the actual actors. Excellent job. What I couldn't understand was the numerous shots within the film that felt off. I'm not talking about the edit, or the shots themselves... Rather the coloring. In this day and age it's so easy to do minor color fixes. Right from your favorite video editing program. Yet "Alex & Jamie" is full of shots that could have easily been fixed. A warm tone one shot, followed by a cool one the next. The contrast in one shot light, and dark in the next. This coloring issue was a major turn-off for me. Every single time the tone or contrast changed, during the same scene, I was reminded this was an indie film. And it was so easy to fix. I'm not talking about a full-out color grade... I'm talking about a slight adjustment to each shot. Aside from that, I did also notice a "lot" of music during this film. Yes, there happened to be an abnormal amount of montage scenes, but putting them aside, I swear that seventy-five percent of this film contained a backing score. It was over the top. Very. I also noticed a slightly long running movie. Not overly, but present none the less. This could have been addressed by cutting some of the montage sequences, but it's not really a huge issue, considering the good script-writing and as I wrote above, the well above average acting. When it's all said and done this was a very good movie. For an indie film it was even more impressive. I really can't explain the feeling of the film except to write: Watch it. This is one of those titles I'm very happy to say is free, so there's really no excuse not to enjoy some excellent indie filmmaking. Personally? This is one I would have been happy to buy.
