This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Based on a true story
Plot Overview
Jorge Bacardi (Adan Canto,)
son of a Puerto Rican rum magnate, having lost the lower lobe of his
left lung to disease, further exacerbated it with an injury on a soccer
pitch. He was originally not expected to live past the age of 12.
The doctors revised their estimates to 20, then 30. He soldiers on
until his heart is captured by a pert airline stewardess
(“She's a gringa”) Leslie (Radha Mitchell) who serves
him on one of his business flights. After a whirlwind romance
across several time zones, they get hitched and start making babies,
or try to. He is in declining health.
Meanwhile Loyola University freshman Christopher Gregory (Jacob Elordi)
has his heart set on pretty senior Samantha (Tiera Skovbye.) He volunteers
for her safety patrol service offering
rides to the stranded, and she helps him get his Louisiana driver's
license. Eventually they have an official date, which takes some kind
of inevitable course to matrimony and parenthood.
The scenes regularly shift between these two budding romances, the former couple bent on making hay while the sun shines, and the latter allowing life to unfold in due course. Chris was under academic pressure to “get your grades up”—from 3 C's and a D—while Jorge was under business pressure to establish a footing in Miami, as “Castro is becoming unpredictable.” Castro isn't the only thing unpredictable in this movie.
Ideology
J.B. Mozley, D.D., in a sermon on Proverbs tells us, “Pious and good men took those truths which they observed themselves in the actions of men and the course of Providence, and made proverbs of them. They gave the rest of the world the benefit of their experience; they said, ‘We can vouch for this being true, because we have seen it; we have seen it constantly, time after time; you may depend upon it, because it is not a mere idea, it is a fact’” (98.) Wise King Solomon had something to say about the unpredictability of life: (Eccl. 9:11-12)
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
Solomon could have been witnessing the maiden launch of the safety patrol for its initial riders: Chris is riding shotgun in the front passenger seat who had demonstrated that “the race is not to the swift” when hurrying to class one day he (literally) bumped into Samantha—that's how they met. One of their initial riders is a library girl who didn't want Chris to carry her bag for her, so she tried to muscle it away from him, but “the battle [is not] to the strong.” A sorority girl (Georgia Bradner) took a libation break from her studies and found she couldn't hold down her supper; “neither yet bread to the wise.” Sam the driver soon to graduate didn't have a lucrative job lined up but was settling on an internship; “nor yet riches to men of understanding.” A surfer dude (Neil Webb) had to ride in the back seat squeezed between the two other riders; “nor yet favour to men of skill.”
From both couples is telegraphed a coming sudden, horrific disruption of their lives on the order of a Claude Houghton novel in which, “the essential quality of horror is its unreality. In an instant of time, life had become as unstable as a nightmare—anything could happen at any moment to him or anyone—anything was possible” (109).
Production Values
The film “2 Hearts” (2020) was directed by Lance Hool. Its screenplay was written by Veronica Hool and Robin U. Russin, based on a true story, and on the 2017 book All My Tomorrows by Brian Gregory. It stars Radha Mitchell, Jacob Elordi, and Adan Canto. Their acting produced believable characters. Chris and Sam had great chemistry together. Jorge and Sarah's love was also touching.
MPAA rated it PG–13 for brief strong language. It was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It's 100 min. long. The camera has a penchant for circling its subjects and then elevating itself to swoop down on them from above. It's enough to give a body vertigo, but to be fair their situations themselves are examined from every angle including a lofty perspective.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The younger couple proceeds to matrimony
instead of marriage per se. The word matrimony derives
from the Latin mater
meaning mother, and monium meaning the state of, matrimony in the Catholic
catechism being the state in which a woman is permitted to enter into
motherhood. The word marriage doesn't even appear
in the catechism, although we use it as a synonym when applied to opposite
sexes so united, see 1Cor. 7:2. Both
couples held having children as their ultimate hope, goal or wish in
matrimony. The founder of Loyola U. was
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) who was a major opponent of the
Reformation. The Protestants hold more of a companionate view of
marriage—more amenable to “marriage equality”—than
do the Catholics whose influence is felt through the Spanish culture in
this movie. Nevertheless, it's not a thick Catholic film;
Protestants should be able to appreciate it, too, although it helps to be
heterosexual.
I found this movie to be touching with its double romances and shocking in its turn of events. But that's the movies, or dare I say, that's life. The (true) story was impactful on the order of something L.A. author Ryan Gattis has written:
Stories stick. Good stories don't just do that, though, they can rearrange you inside. There's no getting them out. And once they're in, they can roll around and grow while you think about them and they can get bigger. They can change your mind about things, your thinking, even your heart. Sometimes years after you heard it, a story can change you. (98)The film ends with a reference to the Gabriel House of Care, a noteworthy non-profit.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: No action, tame adventure. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for straight family groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Gattis, Ryan. Safe. Copyright © 2017 by Ryan Gattis. New York: MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017. Print.
Houghton, Claude. A Hair Divides. Copyright © 1930 by Claude Houghton Oldfield. Richmond: Valancourt Books, 2015. Print.
Mozley D.D., J.B. Sermons Parochial and Occasional. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1880. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org