First love can be regarded as a great feeling to have and sense even after completing other programs and believing in the set coordinates of figure to possess in life. Tiffany Paulsen’s Winter Spring Summer and Fall is a case in point. As described in Dan Schoffer’s film, the action now revolves around Jenna Ortega and Percy Hynes White, who are said to continue their work at Wednesday with a plot about a couple of teenagers serving time at a high school. The story of this romantic dramedy is constructed around well-known clichés, which make the portrayal somewhat unimpressive. But at least the two do have some level of chemistry to prevent the audience from becoming disinterested.
Remy Ortega’s parents are both lawyers- Javier Ortega (Adam Rodriguez) and Carmen Ortega (Marisol Nichols). She’s a school math, history and other subjects wiz and has dreams of going into ivy league universities. To help with her search and try to gather some experience, Remy plans on going to Columbia University to see a friend. On her way there, she meets Barnes (White) who is a free-spirited music head and looks like he is nowhere in the 21st century. This, at first, repulses Remy from Barnes completely. But since they start meeting every so often, chemistry gets Remy to calm down and take a jump of faith with him.
It is evident that Paulsen tries hard to deliver an engaging romantic drama, but in reality, the film is simply disappointing and bland.
Similar to most rom coms, Winter Spring Summer Or Fall starts off with a basic story arc. As different as day and night, Remy and Barnes quite naturally are drawn to each other at their first encounter. As fate would have it, the two can not find a common ground due to the fact that their potentials are opposites. However, the future Harvard graduate and her basement-dwelling slacker companion try to bottle their feelings which obviously doesn’t end well for the two. And from there begins a love story that is both enjoyable and thrilling for the fans of this genre.
Romantic movies, including this one, are pretty standard and do not really push the envelope any further. Instead, it just follows the same plot that’s been done repeatedly, progressing the story with cliches. They also have a really annoying ping pong effect, where one minute they want to be together and the next they don’t which can be rather frustrating to watch. Thankfully, Ortega and White light up the romance with their chemistry when the script starts getting a bit boring. They are amazing together on screen. I would just prefer the script to go a bit more intense.
Winter Spring Summer or Fall’s screenplay, like many, seems forced and rather unfeeling than romantic.
Paulsen attempts to develop Remy and Barnes’ appearance as a cute, first love story which grows as the months pass by. Still, such decisions, which appeared rather sudden for some of the characters, took me out of the picture. For instance, as soon as Remy becomes infatuated with Barnes, she appears to be willing to sacrifice everything she has worked for her entire life for him. The script presents it as a ‘people change’ story and even has the audacity to suggest that it is true when it states Remy has softened up and is no longer so priapic. But these transformations are so abrupt that they feel phony and not very believable. Maybe, that is the reason love does exist, it merely lacks sense.
And even when it seems that they have made up their minds to finally be together, a random fight comes up and we again have to question ‘will they or won’t they?’ It was tiring to put it lightly. And at this point, I totally switched off Winter Spring Summer or Fall. It is too bad too because the ending seems to promise a whiff of sweetness that films of this kind need. However, it is not sufficient to make up for the other 60 minutes that had me tearing out my hair in frustration at the vacillation.
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