All the Days Before Tomorrow (2006)

Love stories can be the hardest to tell for three distinct reasons.  First, they’re often formulaic.  Boy meets a girl (or vice versa), falls in love, overcomes an obstacle or two, and then marches hand-and-hand towards a gloriously predictable ending where the girl’s maid of honor catches her wedding bouquet while making eye contact with the groom’s best man.  Second, they often alienate most male audiences, making them feel dragged to just about any Diane Keaton movie besides The Godfather trilogy.  And finally, very few love stories stay with the viewer after the credits have rolled.

All The Days Before Tomorrow, a gem now on DVD from director Francois Dompierre, manages to avoid each of these pitfalls with equally impressive skill.

The film is a non-linear tale about the complex relationship between Wes (Joey Kern) and Alison (Alexandra Holden).  Presented as a series of events in their time together, each segment is linked by interludes that delve into the dream world of Wes’s subconscious, where he seeks counsel from the mysterious El Doctor (Richard Roundtree in an amusing turn).  When they first meet, Alison is a lonely, bored wife with a wealthy husband on the other side of the world.  Then quiet Wes enters the picture, leading to a friendship and the inevitable moment when Alison must choose between her bored-but-posh life or exploring a new one.

It sounds like the same kind of story we’ve seen countless times, but All the Days Before Tomorrow is innovative for breaking the chronological norms of the genre and leaving the viewer bewildered, but engaged, particularly about the outcome.  Wes’s dream sequences also serve an effective purpose.  Without them, he would be rendered flat and unparalleled by Alison’s carefree, live-for-the-moment attitude.  In the scenes with El Doctor, we see Wes for who he really is – a young man confounded by the complexities and mysteries of life.  His deepest uncertainties about the future parallel those of Alison, and this is the essence of what links them together.

The performances are excellent.  Kern and Holden have such wonderful chemistry, playing off each other to create characters we can genuinely root for.  Their synergy is what drives this dialogue-heavy film in a way that’s never tedious, even for the male viewer.

And I’d be remiss for not mentioning the standout dance scene set to Zero 7’s sultry “In the Waiting Line.” Filled with breathtaking sensuality, it remains one of the most realistic and haunting club scenes in recent memory.

The dream sequences do seem a bit out of place in the early stages of the film, due to the director’s choice to use title cards for each.  A more subtle insertion without the title cards would’ve benefitted the overall rhythm of the film.

The film’s timeline can be frustrating at times.  While it primarily employs flashbacks, an ambiguous flash forward is also included.  To follow it best, note the clothing the characters are wearing.  Dompierre has created a depiction of what happens so often with young romance.  There are feelings that the two characters have for each other, but they’re never reciprocated at the same moment.  In essence, the film’s timeline is metaphoric for Wes and Alison’s inability to never quite find the “right time.”

Dompierre has helmed a rare thing.  This is a love story that defies convention with a unique approach to the narrative and manages to keep viewers of both genders engaged.  Genre movies don’t necessarily have to reinvent themselves, but it’s refreshing to see new approaches and gutsy storytelling devices.  Otherwise, we’re just getting the same kind of predictable yarns continuously regurgitated.

Movies should do more than that.  They should be about discovery and taking chances.  Francois Dompierre took a chance with All the Days Before Tomorrow…and it paid off wonderfully.

Take a look at All the Days Before Tomorrow at Amazon, and if you decide to buy a copy, we’ll get a little bit of money for a soda pop.