Marriage and its doubts in the confusion with the star cast

When there’s a constellation of stars in a cast, two things can happen: best of all, it’s one of those giant movies like The Godfather that wins all the Oscars, and even the tenth supporting actor wins it; and the worst part is that it’s a set of figurines whose purpose is to avoid a scenario that is basically a mess. Well, “Maybe forever” answers, unfortunately, the second case. It’s hard for viewers to resist a cast of Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, the great William H. Macy (in the veteran celebrity category) and the ever-rising Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey. The film, one of the newest releases of the week on Amazon Prime Video, is a romantic comedy triggered by reflections on how wonderful or harmful marriage is. There could be a thousand films made on this subject in 2023, given the complexity that couples in this era entail; but Michael Jacobs, who has a long career as a producer and creator of American television, chose the shortest route for this film – something fast, like a McDonald’s hamburger. A sort of comedy of balls, which could well be a play from the summer season of Carlos Paz, in which everything is dynamic, sometimes entertaining, but always not very believable. Everything revolves around three couples or something like that. The younger one is made up of Michelle (Roberts) and Alan (Bracey), she with all the desire to get married and the one who flies on a dove (literally) to avoid catching the bride’s bouquet in the middle of the wedding banquet. . The first conflict is at the door. The second pair is a seductive veteran (Gre, as usual, in another weak performance), who leaves his sultry lover (Sarandon, as usual, in another excellent performance). Second conflict. And the third pair is Diane Keaton and William H. Macy as two people caught in the middle of the void left by their marriages. Third conflict. And fourth, the icing on the cake, when the young couple decides to try to reconcile and organizes a dinner with mom and dad. Chaos ensues when it is revealed that Michelle’s parents are Keaton-Gear and Alan’s parents are Sarandon-Macey, i.e. crossover couples. The film, with an inconspicuous production and very weak direction, tries to give a glimpse of the much-discussed depletion of love in couples with decades of marriage, but does not avoid the platitude of the pink circuit “and they were rejoicing and eating partridges.”