FIRST LOVE (2022)

Casts:  Jeffrey Donovan, Diane Kruger, Chris Galust, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Sydney Park, Diane Venora.

Director: A.J Edwards

Review

I recently saw the movie ‘First Love’ that was released in June 2022.

The movie was produced by Green Light Pictures and Fortitude International and distributed by Vertical Entertainment. ‘First Love’ is a High School Romance movie that depicts what happens when two seniors in high school fall in love, their challenges as they prepare for college, and much more. First Love stars so many great actors like Jeffrey Donovan (Greg), Diane Kruger (Kay), Chris Galust (Casey), Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Jim), Sydney Park (Ann), Diane Venora (Aunt Irene), and so on.

The Director (A.J Edwards) who is also the Story writer deserves some accolades for this beautiful touching love story.

First love was said to take place during the Great Recession in 2008.

The movie started off with the family of Jeffrey Donovan (Greg) and Diane Kruger (Kay) who had 2 kids – Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Jim) who was a senior in High school, and his older brother Chris Galust (Casey) who was about to leave for his military training.

Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Jim) met Sydney Park (Ann) in/at High school. It was Love at first sight. She was just perfect to him. He couldn’t keep his feelings for her to himself so he decided to approach her. Like the force of two magnets, she liked him back, despite what her friends thought about him, and soon enough, they began dating. Love indeed can be beautiful.

However, being in their final year of High school, they would soon be heading to college. This bittersweet moment, an existing reality that the lovebirds would be off to some faraway distances, for a long while.

Would this affect their relationship positively or negatively, given the odds? Would the ship sail or sink?

As a result of the Great Recession, the global market was fluctuating; many organizations had to lay off employees to stay above the waters. Jeffrey Donovan(Greg) was one of the unlucky ones that got laid off.

Fortunately, Diane Kruger (Kay), Jim’s mum didn’t lose her job, but she was dealing with her Aunt Irene (Diane Venora) who was losing her mind. Aunt Irene looked after Kay when she was a little girl and her mum had passed away, but as Aunt Irene got older, she began having some mental health issues.

The situation got worse for the family when after 6 months, Greg was still unemployed, and they had to consider relocating and selling their house.

Would Kay be patient enough to deal with the whole distress? Would the situation between the parents keep them together or apart?

Sometimes when love runs out – when it is no longer as beautiful as it once was, one will rather leave than be unhappy.

This movie is truly touching, and I must admit it brought tears to my eyes. The actors and actresses were really amazing with their parts. Though the movie was good, it had several flaws – The editing was not so good. I had problems with the switching of scenes in the movie. It was a bit confusing, like blending two different scenes into one, which didn’t really sit well with me. Also, flashbacks were inaudible, this made it difficult to really understand what was being said in the flashback.

It taught me a lot of things! It shows that love is not always a bed of roses. There are a lot of thorns on the way. Our moments of pain bring forth the major changes in our lives, depending on how we handle the situations.

“If our blue skies turned grey and our memories fade away, would you still love me?

I personally would recommend this movie to our young lovers out there, those who are experiencing love for the first time. I also recommend this to married couples and literally everyone who experiences love in one way or the other.

However, I would rate the movie a 7.4 over 10.