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Lovers' leap
Fresh points of view and lovable characters make "Jump Tomorrow" more than just a formula romance.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
Everybody tells George to smile —l he's supposed to get married in a
cookie-cutter Niagara Falls wedding chapel in a few days to a woman sent
over specially from his native Nigeria. Is he happy?
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| | | JUMP TOMORROW | Written and directed by: Joel Hopkins.
Cast: Tunde Adebimpe, Hippolyte Girardot, Natalia Verbeke, James Wilby, Patricia Mauceri, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kaili Vernoff, Gene Ruffini, Abiola Wendy Abrams.
Related links: Official site |
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"Yes," he tells a friend, "my family will be very proud."
In this country, that is not the kind of enthusiasm we like to hear from
a young groom-to-be. And so we know from the start that George is headed
for a serious plot twist momentarily.
Not one but two plot twists pop into George's life within minutes —
one is named Gerard and one is named Alicia. Gerard, in spite of having
just been dumped by the woman of his dreams and having nearly killed
himself before George bumblingly saved him, still considers himself an
expert on love — he is a Frenchman, after all — and he sets
about rescuing George from his numbing Niagara nuptials.
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Which is where Alicia comes in. She's a young Latina with whom George is
instantly smitten while he waits to meet his bride's plane — she's
spellbindingly gorgeous in a normal, girl-next-door kind of way, and, oh
yeah, of course she's not single.
That's not enough to put Gerard off the trail. "Point one, she has a
boyfriend," he tells George. "That's no problem — he's English.
Point two: We need to make her fall in love with you." And so a simple
drive in a Citroen through upstate New York turns into an offbeat quest
for love.
If you've seen even one romance picture in your life, you know the basic
outline of what's going to happen here. And yet, with the right
combination of humor and charm, a movie like this can be quite lovable.
This one is. It's an extrapolation of the short film "Jorge," an IFC
favorite, which was also made by Joel Hopkins with Tunde Adebimpe in the
lead, who's so uncool he's the anti-Denzel Washington. Natalia Verbeke as
Alicia is full of life, as is Patricia Mauceri, who shows up halfway
through as her mother. It's just fresh and fun enough and the characters
lovable enough to make "Jump Tomorrow" a real pleasure.
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JULY 6, 2001
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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