Daniela Forever opens with a flashback about the present and only makes sense later in the movie. This was appropriate because now the narrative is terrible, considering that the protagonist of the film, Nicolas (portrayed by Henry Golding from Crazy Rich Asians), lost his girlfriend, foddering off with whom this film is adorned. After the film’s protagonist dies, his sad face reminds viewers through the alcohol consumed that love is completely meaningless. Then, time stands still, and pleasurable activities become best evaded.
The White Lotus’ Beatrice Grannò as Daniella is Gilda from the William Shakespeare’s play and in that there are minutes of endless torment for the hero. It’s only a picture out of its time, and there are bags of fern in heaps on the hasty movements, apparently exhausted from that bubbles into silence. Wearing leather gloves irriates the senses of the workspace, which even at the disturbing sight of menacing closures looks like a reverse touch. When she dies, he avoids the thoughts he cannot bring himself to entertain, however, this time he is in a perfect, never-ending scene.
In Toronto, this flick hit the big screens during September of last year, precisely at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is naturally the type of film which inverts the cliche phrase “get them out of your head,” turning it more in the direction of fantasy. Guido are rescominated only where put together during the meal. Snorting drugs seems uncharacteristic as Nicolas has such a strong memory it is possible even imaginary times can create a new setting.
Vigalondo’s film has a great idea, but the execution (the screenplay was also his) suffers from many issues and is thus a film that never really achieves its potential.
Before Daniela Forever heads south thanks to an unfortunate number of twists, it attracts with an engaging visual direction (cinematography by Jon D. Dominguez) that makes it different from others with nearly the same plot loss, aspirations, and a device capable of both erasing the former and fulfilling the latter. The view of Nicolas is presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, which looks tightly cropped, and the colors are muted, as if the viewer is looking through an old camcorder. Inigo Wigalondo, who in 2016 worked on the strange Anne Hathaway led sci-fi Colossal, flipped to the sharp and wide lens, now deep sourcing images for his character Nicolas in a dream like setting. Just the above does not introduce the correct understanding of the atmosphere as the colors are sharper and the atmosphere here is more than strange.
The action starts from recollection. The two are replaying their wishing to remember the details of their first meeting like other people in a relationship argue affectionately. At a dance, she remembers him focused on the DJ at that unique underground club; she was a dancer. Did he see her? Certainly, he insists. No, she says. Sometime after this, during the house gathering, a friend of theirs interjects and makes the introduction.
But, what do you mean, Nicolas intervenes? The most important thing is the friend (Rubén Ochandiano) is disorientating with his day, bright colored skin which came out as sunlight in contrast with the purplish tint of the time, dusk. Truly nightmares come last as Nicolas reminisces last days with the love of his life Daniela, who later died in a car accident, unknown how long after. When he opens his eyes, he is by himself.
Vigalondo’s screenplay quickly addresses the issue of how Nicolas discovers this covert illicit drug and chooses to be a resistant subject. The scientists inform him that he will be required to read some cues designed to stimulate specific memories prior to taking the capsule. Then, after he unintentionally douses one of the cards with water, Nicolas speaks of Daniela and comes to the realization that this is the one that he would like to be inside. To make matters worse, he ignores the phone towards the center of the screen during these interviews with scientists.
Most of Daniela Forever captures Nicolas in the throes of contemplating navigation between the times of nightmares and what he really loves, which remains elusive. The tired and drained DJ prepares in waiting for dusk with hope of seeing his woman once again. The screenplay provides necklaces of his normal life in broad outlines but there is not much left to say, the real plot happens in his dreams.
Though Vigalondo has interesting ideas on lucid dreaming mechanics, like how Nicolas navigates through scenes or which ones dream Daniela actually remembers, the director doesn’t extract much apart from that. There is a disjointed quality to the plot whereby there is no real conflict or tension. Vigalondo hints at some pretty intricate aspects of Nicolas’s character, but does not fully explore them. Daniela Forever on the other hand, rather prevents any tension from being able to be addressed in the first place.
Grannò and Golding who manages to give great performances are not helped by this narrative style. There are moments in which you can observe Golding pushing his character in new directions, trying to play his performance as a broken man. Nicolas makes reckless and self destructive decisions in favor of a dream version of Daniela, her studies and eventually the real her. Yet, the actor’s attempts seem to be irrelevant for the narrative, which does not seem to be interested in such nuances.
For Grannò’s Daniela this applies as well, who at some point comes off as having a will of her own, just like Samantha in Spike Jonze’s ‘Her’. The role of a digital artist who loses her battle with depression feels aimless in the context of the self consistent universe of the film. Dreams are, as we know, made out of the things that we have been through, of the things that we have hardly experienced in the first place.
Daniela Forever is an enigmatic movie whose self revelation looks tenuous. As it goes on and Nicolas is spun ever further into the chaos of the discrepancy between the images he sees while asleep and the world he inhabits, the film too drifts into the chaos of its aim. And that is bad enough, encouraging little faith even for the most patient of examples.
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