MOVIE OF THE WEEK January 17, 2025: WISH YOU WERE HERE
Star-crossed lovers have been fighting for moments of happiness on the silver screen — and giving audiences an excuse for a good cry — ever since movies were invented, from Romeo & Juliet to An Affair to Remember to The Fault in Our Stars. Actor Julia Stiles’ feature directorial debut, Wish You Were Here, proudly joins the three-hanky club as it tells the story of Charlotte (Isablle Fuhrman) and Adam (Mena Massoud), whose one-night stand leads to something much more profound.
Based on the same-named novel by Renee Carlino, Wish You Were Here makes it clear that twentysomething Charlotte is in a bit of a holding pattern as the movie begins. Her job as a waitress at a gimmicky Mexican restaurant certainly isn’t a career, and dating isn’t really happening for her right now. But then she has a meet-cute with Adam, an artist who’s delivering food orders, and there’s a real spark between them. Charlotte follows that spark to Adam’s place, where they laugh, talk, and spend an incredible night together. But then he freezes her out the next morning, and it seems that the possibilities she’d let herself imagine were just wishful thinking.
Despite her anger at Adam, Charlotte can’t forget him or their connection, even after she tries to move on and meets the sweetly charming Seth (Jimmie Fails). Then life throws her a really big curveball, and she realizes that her time with Adam may not be over quite yet after all. And while it’s never too difficult to tell where their story is going, the journey is sweetly sentimental and heart-squishingly romantic, thanks to Stiles’ sure-handed direction and her stars’ earnest performances.
Fuhrman, especially, feels like a real person; her Charlotte seems like someone you knew — or could have been — in your 20s. She adores and is exasperated by her parents (Jennifer Grey and Kelsey Grammer), she’s happy for and jealous of her best friend/roommate (Gabby Kono-Abdy) when the latter finds love, and she wonders whether soulmates are actually real. Some of the movie’s twists edge a bit close to soap-opera territory, but Stiles and Fuhrman always keep Charlotte grounded, which gives the story real emotional impact. — Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Loren King A good old fashioned tearjerker, even a contemporary one with millennials dealing with love and loss, depends entirely on the two romantic leads. In the case of Wish You Were Here, the directing debut of Julia Stiles who adapted Renée Carlino’s bestseller of the same title, Isabelle Fuhrman and Mena Massoud as doomed lovers Charlotte and Adam are more than up to the task. The appealing actors wade through the heart tugging landmines of hospital rooms, teary close ups and the piercing recognition, even for twenty somethings, of mortality. Charlotte and Adam amuse one another with fairy tale fantasies about their past and future together while ultimately forced to face a hard, present reality. The charm and charisma of both Fuhrman and Massoud won me over and when a grieving Charlotte scrawls the film’s title on a place of importance to both characters, it turned me into a puddle. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sherin Nicole Julia Stiles’ directorial debut, Wish You Were Here, is about finding your soulmate and the life of love rather than the love of a lifetime. Starring Isabelle Fuhrman as Charlotte and Mena Massoud as Adam, we watch romance bloom for one unforgettable night and wake up to heartbreak afterward. Stiles, co-writing with author Renée Carlino, draws us into what it means to connect when the future is limited and grief is inevitable. After their night together, Adam is distant. Charlotte soon learns he is terminally ill and that maybe, just maybe, everything she felt is real. Now, she must decide whether to trust what her heart knows or deny herself an ephemeral but magnificent here and now. After all, another possibility (Jimmie Fails) is just around the corner. Framed by poetic truths and a cast that plays the subtleties, Wish You Were Here is about loving in the now without forgetting the possibilities of what comes next.
Leslie Combemale You’ve seen this traditional story before, offered up in the great tradition of Dark Victory, Love Story, and, more recently, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Boy meets girl, love happens, but oops, one of them is dying. This feature directorial debut from Julia Stiles, who co-wrote the screenplay with Renée Carlino based on Carlino’s novel, is in that mold. There’s a reason tearjerkers are a viable sub-genre. They’re love stories with a side of schadenfreude. Stiles mines the genre well, allowing for a bittersweet love story good enough to question its death trap January release. Read full review.
Jennifer Merin Wish You Were Here is a thoroughly engaging bittersweet romance with an unusual plot twist (no spoilers here) that compels you to care deeply about the featured young couple Charlotte (Isabelle Furman) and Adam (Mena Massoud) and their transcendent love. This first narrative feature from actress-turned-director Julia Stiles is exquisitely crafted. The performances are beautifully nuanced, tender and honest. Watching Wish You Were Here reminds you of how it was to fall in love for the first time and it makes you wish consistently that everything will be happiness ever after. It is a sentimental and heartwarming but mush-free flow of love and circumstance.
Sandie Angulo Chen: Wish You Were Here is a poignant romantic drama about a young woman whose unexpected one-night stand evolves into a brief but intense love story with a man nearing the end of his life. Isabelle Fuhrman and Mena Massoud deliver heartfelt performances as Charlotte and Adam, an artist aware that his time is running out. The film offers an unconventional yet compelling take on love and loss, skillfully directed by actor-turned-director Julia Stiles. Fuhrman and Massoud’s onscreen chemistry is both moving and authentic, making the film worth seeing for moviegoers who can handle heartache and grief.
Nell Minow: Actress Julia Stiles makes a graceful debut as a writer/director with Wish You Were Here, Renée Carlino’s best-selling novel about a bittersweet romance. Her casting and direction make the most of the actors and the love stories of the characters.
Cate Marquis Actor Julia Stiles turns director, and co-writer, with Wish You Were Here, a story of star-crossed love that is both bittersweet and surprisingly hopeful, thanks to the playful, kidding, open nature of the people who are in it. This is not only Julia Stile’s directorial debut but she also co-wrote the script with Renee Carlino, who wrote the novel on which the film is based. The script leans into, with playfulness and hope, the role of chance in falling in love, the power of imagination, and a sense of true love as something magical. This warmly human film also gets a lift from appealing, slightly-quirky performances from leads Isabelle Furman and Mena Massoud, and gently comic ones from a supporting cast that includes Jennifer Grey and Kelsey Grammer as her parents. All that adds up to make Wish You Were Here a unique romance, uplifting and bittersweet at the same time.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: Wish You Were Still Here
Director: Julia Stiles
Release Date: January 17, 2025
Running Time: 99 minutes
Language: English
Screenwriters: Julia Stiles and Renée Carlino
Lead Performers: Isabelle Fuhrman, Mena Massoud, Jimmy Falls, Gabby Kono, Kelsy Grammar, Jennifer Grey
Distribution Company: Lionsgate
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Pam Grady, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Sherin Nicole, Liz Whittemore
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Edited by Jennifer Merin
