Falling in love in your twenties is generally full of whimsy, laughter, and a starry-eyed vision of the endless possibilities that the future can hold. It’s an experience unlike anything else. Conversely, falling out of your love in your twenties, while rarer, is an experience unlike anything else in the complete opposite ways—heartbreak, shattered aspirations, and piercing words that cut deep. Charlie Harper takes those two very distinct yet intertwined occurrences and tells a brutally beautiful story of two people falling in and out of love.

Directors Tom Dean and Mac Eldridge bring forth something so authentic (think in the vein of an early-2010s Blue Valentine or Before Midnight) in Charlie Harper that it’s hard not to be completely entranced during its entire runtime, which is just over 100 minutes. The film kicks off with Charlie (Nick Robinson of recent Snack Shack fame) and Harper (Emilia Jones from the 2021 Academy Award-nominated CODA) striking up a conversation at a wedding in which they both play a flirtatious game of recalling the first time they met in high school; Harper, a student, and Charlie, a teacher’s aid in her class. They always had a crush on each other, and as school progressed, their crush turned into a young love full of house parties, staying out late, and gazing into each other’s eyes.

Yet, Harper’s dreams of moving after high school and becoming a standout chef clashed with Charlie’s seldom-planned-out future, turning their fated love into a continuous test of self-identity and trust in one another. The film is told in a non-linear fashion, utilizing aspect ratio changes and obscure political references to timestamp their relationship, both helping and sometimes hindering the audience’s ability to correctly identify just where in their journey we are peering into. There is no doubt that this storytelling style lends a level of intrigue and curiosity to the relationship between Charlie and Harper, eliciting a roller coaster of emotions from scene to scene.

As the film progresses, it’s apparent that Emilia Jones has already cemented her place within the “great on-screen criers” hall of fame, something I could have watched for another two hours. Her ability to convey pure heartbreak is something seldom seen elsewhere within modern movies. Nick Robinson acts within the same vein, amplifying the emotional punches the movie delivers, never losing steam as it does so.

Falling in love creates some of the best memories of our lives, but so does falling out of love. Time never ceases to pass, and as the pain of hard truths reaches up to match the bliss of emotional devotion, it’s easy to see that memories shape who we are and ultimately who we become. Charlie Harper understands this at its core. It isn’t easy, but some of the best things in life never are.

Review Courtesy of Ethan Simmie

Feature Image Courtesy of TIFF