Displaying items by tag: Adrian Grenier

YOU, ALWAYS

Australia, 2025, 93 minutes, Colour.

Adrian Grennier, Jessica De Gouw, Desmond Chiam, Aria Burton, Yasmin Kassim.

Directed by Christine Luby.

A romantic title. And, this is one of the many romances made by the Stephen Jaggi company, based in Queensland, Queensland locations, especially the Queensland coast and islands.

Something of a formula in many of the films, starting in the United States, the central female character, an occasion to move to Australia, misunderstandings, falling in love… But, in this case, the American character is male, already in Australia, no American sequences.

Adrian Grennier, having a working holiday in Australia, plays an American Australian, Ethan, who served in the American forces but who spent teenage years and high School in Australia and has now returned, inheriting a house left to him by his father. He works in marine rescue. His associate in marine rescue is a local doctor, played by Jessica De Gouw. Both are divorced, have known each other since teenage years, supported each other in divorces, he rather opting out of life, she with great hopes, and a special bond between her daughter and her longtime friend.

The title indicates how the film will end. But, of course, it is what happens in between. Jen is prone to read romantic novels (the samples from the screenplay written in very basic prose, not the greatest literature). And, then she encounters the author himself, up from Sydney looking for a local colour for his next novel. His played by Desmond Chiam, with some charm, Jen has various encounters with him, falling in love, romantic interludes including snorkelling in the Barrier Reef, some jealousies arising! Ethan rescues a young woman and she invites him out to a meal – leading to some highly embarrassing moments and misinterpretations of relationships.

It all works out more or less as expected, the plans for the move to Sydney and a new life, the author rather taking control of the marriage preparations (and then disappearing from the film completely). There are some cheerful minor characters, by and large comfortable life in North Queensland and, of course, the beaches, the mountains, the perfect setting for this kind of romance.