Jump Tomorrow (2001)

Who payed the critics

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"Jump Tomorrow" is a delightful, surprising sweet road trip of a movie. Very similar in tone to one of my little favorites, "The Daytrippers," it brings together a quirky group of people in a concentrated period of time for a romantic quest. The fresh-faced (though mostly experienced), multi-cultural cast is absolutely disarming, and their cultural variety is integrated into the script very nicely. Very amusing is the cute but restrained use of fantasy; the continuing technique of inner thoughts revealed as dreams in a Spanish telenovella is very original.The song selection is selectively classic rock.I could very well adopt the theme in my personal life: hey, you can always jump tomorrow!(originally written 7/27/2001)

George is a young Nigerian American who is due to get married to Sophie, who is coming from Nigeria. George is one day late to pick her up from the airport and she has gone ahead to Niagara Falls for their wedding. George bumps into Gerard, who is on the point of suicide from unreturned love, and the pair travel up to Niagara Falls. On the way George meets Alicia, herself in a relationship and he begins to fall for her.Extended from a short I haven't yet seen (Jorge) this film attracted me as it was part of a season of `indie' films and shorts being shown on channel 4. From the opening scenes it was apparent that this film had a nicely comic tone to it that was amusing. The plot is also `nice', a romance without ever getting too heavy or too sickly sweet. The comic feel running through the film keeps it amusing even when nothing much happens.The film's weakness is that it is clearly made by a director of shorts. The feel of the film is like that of many short films – development is not the key and it assumes we sort of know the characters well enough after only a few minutes. Similarly the film feels very episodic – the scenes don't flow into each other but feel more like they are very distinct and separate events. However that said the film is still entertaining but it didn't give me more as the film went on – rather just more of the same. I enjoyed the film but it's hard to praise it simply because it doesn't excel itself in any one area but drifts along amiably enough.Part of the reason I enjoyed the film was a great lead by Adebimpe, who fits the role like a glove! He is suitably uptight and is very good as George. Verbeke's Alicia is not as good but is `nice'. Girardot is great fun and really gives the film some energy.Overall I enjoyed this film and many others will as long as you're in the mood for something slight. If you expect something more substantial then you may be disappointed as this really is a film with all the qualities of a short – in some cases this is good and in others it is a weakness. Generally the film was `nice', I neither loved nor hated it but did enjoy it – I just can't find a better way of putting it as I did think it was remarkably middle of the road in many regards.

This is a little nugget of a film pretty much overlooked by the world. It's a very simple film but does a rare thing these days - appeal to the heart with its honesty and sincerity. It's very well written, amusing, entertaining and in the end you really care about the characters.Warm and life affirming.

Among the good ideas that make that film funny I would pick the one with 'Jorge' embodying a true macho in some telenovela. I think this is definitely the most effective dodge of Jump Tomorrow. Some others are quite funny too (even the cliché crazy Frenchy). But it lacks rhythm on the whole. It's like your hear a good joke, call a buddy to tell it and then the next joke is just cooking.Funny but it could have been directed a lot more lively.