I'm all for films dealing with the nostalgia of lost love, but this at times was somber, poignant and depressing. It begins slowly and awkwardly, as Jim (Mark Duplass) and Amanda (Sarah Paulson) meet by chance in a supermarket on their respective return to a California hometown. Over jellybeans and beer, the former couple relive their past by way of keepsake mementoes and a taped recording they made twenty years earlier when in the throes of a teenage romance. Now she's married with college age sons and he's an unemployed carpenter down on his luck and life both. Following a dinner Amanda makes during her extended reunion with Jim, they discuss their 'magical' life, which leads to a somewhat flaky and off-beat reversion back to their teenage personalities, listening to Annie Lenox and jumping on furniture. As their passions almost collide, Amanda calls a halt as she remembers she's married, while Jim finally says the three words that he should have said two decades earlier when they were faced with a scary decision. I have to wonder how many viewers might have been caught up in a similar situation, maybe without the same details, but with a regret over things that might have been.
Review of Blue Jay
