A teenage girl thinks that her dead boyfriend’s spirit is reaching out from the Great Beyond.
Like its foremother, “Twilight,” “The In Between” depicts a pedantic girl in a supernatural world who’s willing to die for her boyfriend. But where the “Twilight” films at least culminated in a decapitation or two, this feature, from the director Arie Posin and the “Serendipity” screenwriter Marc Klein, focuses solely on its fatal romance.
The lead in question is Tessa (Joey King), who wakes up in the hospital after a car crash damages her heart and kills her boyfriend, Skylar (Kyle Allen). As Tessa starts to suspect that Skylar’s spirit is reaching out from the Great Beyond, we see their whirlwind summer romance through a series of flashbacks.
This mawkish plot might be tolerable if its characters were more likable; instead, they are pretension personified. Tessa meets Skylar at a screening of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 1986 psychological drama “Betty Blue,” where he offers to translate the French for her. He describes them both as “analog,” because they like film photography and ’80s pop hits and don’t post on social media.
Spoiler alert: As Skylar’s spirit contacts Tessa through phones and computers (not very analog of him), she embarks on a suicide mission to see him one last time. The film unambiguously romanticizes this self-sacrifice, joining a parade of sexist schlock where girls choose love over life. These depictions are harmful and beyond tired, especially after other entrants in the teen genre, like Ry Russo-Young’s “Before I Fall,” have already managed to explore death and girlhood through the eyes of relatable, independent young women.
The film’s tagline, “love never dies,” sums up its treacly climax. Maybe not, but teenage girls still can.
The In Between
Rated PG-13 for teenage lovemaking and near death experiences. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. Watch on Paramount+.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
