Hello, Love, Goodbye – Movie Reviews by Ry!


Hello, Love, Goodbye – What Love is … For the Moment

Love stories are a dime a dozen.  No matter how you spin the genre, it will come down to believability.  What makes a film in this genre truly stand out is when it takes the commonality and build it within its own creation.  Hello, Love, Goodbye is a love story that tackles the idea through a different perspective.  By building through realism, it creates an experience that is more than its genre.  Hello, Love, Goodbye shows how a film can truly bring about the meaning of love.

The story centers around the relationship of Joy (Kathryn Bernardo) and Ethan (Alden Richards), as they navigate Hong Kong as foreign workers from the Philippines.  With time and fate bringing them together, they must find out the truth of themselves.  The central theme is on the idea of love, but the direction pulls in the audience through its characters.  The two leads are played with endearing wit and charm, as their oddities make their interactions raw and believable.  With the focus on ‘everyday’ occurrences, it allows for the characters to reflect on the fragility of their situations.  Nothing is what it seems, and the layers of truth are slowly revealed through the first and second acts.  As Joy and Ethan’s relationship develop, they are drawn to each other but also hesitate on commitments because of familial situations and past experiences.  This creates a thematic conflict of human nature within the raw emotions of love.  The trivial nature of the clichés is pushed aside with a reflection of what it means to be in a relationship.  This creates a dynamic of a real emotional roller coaster.  Each scene feels riveting on a simplistic scale, as the literal becomes expressive of the audience’s own feelings.  

As the story moves along, situations reveal truths that bring Ethan and Joy at a harden crossroads.  As the mutual sensations are enthralling (in the moment), worth pushes forward unpredictable turns that level out the genre.  In these scenarios, it moves the story past the romantic tales of redundancy to create an experience that is truly heartfelt.  As the film moves into its third act, it delivers upon the idea of self-worth, making every magical moment feel real.  As the epilogue rolls, it brings about the idea of hope, through a different perspective.  Hello, Love, Goodbye is a romantic tale that pushes the boundaries of the genre to tell something pure.  In its own characters, it creates a journey that anyone can relate to.  I say this is worth seeing at the theaters, worth the full price of admission.

Full Score – 4 out of 5 (Full Price)

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