While told in a non-linear fashion, the passionate and troubled love story within “Charlie Harper” is one that fans of romantic dramas would be familiar with. It’s one of two people who have different struggles and thoughts on what they want out of life, but manage to fall for each other despite those differences. The film’s entry point shows Charlie (Nick Robinson) seeing Harper (Emilia Jones), presumably years after an intense breakup. Early on, Harper recounts knowing the beginning and end of their relationship, but the middle, where the details get fuzzy. Tom Dean and Mac Elridge’s directorial debut is structured in a way to pique the audience’s interest in what exactly went wrong and, if at all possible, whether there can be a speck of reconciliation between the main characters.
It’s an intriguing method for telling this story through different aspect ratios, editing styles, and emotional entry points. Besides that, “Charlie Harper” is a relatively straightforward tale of love burning white hot until everything is reduced to ash. The middle is not as much of a mystery as “Charlie Harper” intends once you get down to the fine details. Instead of the audience being the focal point of the narration between Robinson and Jones’s characters, they are seen talking to someone else off-screen. Both are still reeling from the residual effects of the relationship and trying to figure out if there was some possible way they could have made it to the finish line.
Early on in the film, the fissures in personality indicate that it will be challenging. Charlie reveals himself to be extremely intelligent, yet he also seems to float through life with no clear-cut purpose or direction on who he wants to be. Harper has a knack for partying, but she wants to be a chef and zeroes in on achieving her goals once they come into sight. Despite the spirited performances from both Robinson and Jones, it’s not hard to see why the end is coming for the young couple.
Dean and Elridge include many endearing snapshots that explain why this relationship got off the ground in “Charlie Harper” to drive the against-all-odds ethos the film emphasizes. There are small, poignant moments tailored to this once couple where you can see why the romance was so appealing. Charlie makes a CD for Harper early on of Brenda Lee’s “Break It to Me Gently” and tells her not to play it too much to keep the specialness of it alive. Yet, the film itself plays the song frequently within the score. It’s as if “Charlie Harper” is unsettled that the audience may lose track of the story at points, thus relying on reminders to keep things on track.
‘Eleanor The Great’s Moral Quandary Intrudes Upon It’s Overall Lesson
The film sets its two main characters on a course that will eventually lead them to a move to New Orleans (and the end). It’s in this settling that the floaty, storybook love story falls away to harsh realities. However, the real character development comes in “Charlie Harper’s third act when Robinson and Jones’s characters are allowed to exist outside a construct and breathe. It’s then that the film really reaches a narrative high point.
Sometimes, we can’t will a relationship into existence despite the admiration we have for another person. It’s harsh and it’s sad. Life just unfolds and leads us down different paths. “Charlie Harper” felt like it was always going to come to that conclusion. Despite the display of thoughtfulness of displaying two people trying to figure out where it all went wrong, it’s the storytelling method that distills the impact of what this thesis concludes.
This review is a part of Substream Magazine’s 2025 TIFF Coverage.
