There is something hauntingly painful and pure about a person’s first true love the things that stand between us and our chosen love can devastate us like nothing else. The new movie You Can Live forever directed by Mark Slutsky and Sarah Watts evokes these feelings perfectly. The story follows Jaime who is sent to live with her aunt and uncle, a pair of devoted Jehovah’s witnesses, after the death of her father. While staying with them she meets Marike, a girl her age in the church. They become fast friends but there is an undercurrent that neither of them can deny that they want to be more then just friends, something impossible in the community they are residing in. The film takes its time exploring the slow bloom of their feelings and the viewer is almost as surprised as Jaime when Marike steals her first kiss.
A brief aside here much of the young women’s courtship is spent walking among the beaches and forests of Saguenay, Canada and the beautiful cinematography of the film makes me want to move there tomorrow.
The film is touching and the moment when Marike privately baptizes Jaime feels as intimate as if we were watching them get married. The film however also deals with the negative views of the Jehovah’s witnesses to anything that is considered “worldly”. A view that of course means that their relationship must remain a secret.
The climax of the film is as crushing as it was pre-ordained but rings true. There are a lot of coming of age movies out there but this one has an honest and unique voice and is well worth checking out.