The theatre room was silent as the critics sat down to watch [30 days of Happiness]. All of them had different thoughts in their mind in the theatre.
Almost all of them have been to the premier of movies like [Blood Valentine] and [Dark]. They knew that despite being from niche genres, they were masterpieces.
Compared to them, the musical romantic comedy they were going to watch now didn't seem to share the same wavelength. It was an entirely different movie with a lot of commercial aspects to it.
Even though people think that making a commercial movie was easier than an art movie, it didn't hold much weight.
Both of them have different traits and making a good commercial movie could be as difficult as making a great art movie. Not everyone could execute it well.
Because of that and the cast and director being comparatively new, the critics and reporters had already lowered their expectations.
'Let's hope it's an enjoyable experience.'
'I don't think the movie would be great technically but it might have a good heart going with the music.'
'I have already completed three different types of articles on the movie. Flop, mediocre and good. So, I could just sit back and enjoy the experience.'
These were the thoughts inside the mind of reporters and critics. At that moment, the light in the theatres dimmed as they understood that the movie was about to start.
Slowly, the screen lit up and the title of the movie came out.
The reporters and critics leaned back in their seats and stared at the screen. Gordon Lee was also one of them who was just looking at the screen with a frowning expression on his face.
Other than him, Amanda Bailey from LA times had a smile on her face as the movie started. She was a fan of the movie's soundtrack and felt like Aiden could be one of the few big actors in the future, so she was keeping an eye on whether he could deliver with this movie.
Suddenly, after the title of the movie, the screen went blank. As people wondered if there was any technical difficulty, the sound of soft humming came out.
A kind of a tune that Amanda recognised to be similar to 'Lost in the Sky'.
It was then that on the screen, Aiden's figure appeared. Unlike on the poster of the movie, he had a beard and was holding on to a guitar, giving him a bit more mature look.
He seemed to be in some sort of an interview. The interviewer was introducing Aiden as Arthur Reeves, a budding musician whose song had just been nominated for a Grammy.
"So how did you get to writing this song? How long did it take you?" The interviewer on the screen, a middle aged woman asked.
"4 years. I was actually 14 when I started writing this song and for most of the time, I felt like I would never complete it. It was hard, very hard. I gave up in the middle and even felt like I wasn't good enough."
"So, how did you complete the song then?"
"That's a whole story in itself actually."
Arthur said, a nostalgic expression on his face as he smiled. It was then that the movie cut to the time Arthur was in the last year of his high school.
The older Arthur was narrating his life in high school and how he was mostly a kid who never stood out and how he liked it like that. It gave him the moment to work on his music, something that was very precious to him.
The one thing that maybe was more precious for him was Claire, a girl living in his neighbourhood that he had a crush on since he knew the meaning of a crush.
But by the time the last year of high school came, he had already given up on both Claire and music.
Thankfully, things started changing for him on a certain day.
'It's starting off as a typical rom com.'
Amanda thought, thinking of the start of the movie. Until now, it wasn't a storyline that she had not seen before. But the music part of it was something different.
She felt like it was added to make the movie stand out from the rest.
As the movie went on, her thoughts didn't change as both Claire and Arthur met, she told him about her boyfriend and then asked his help to find her boyfriend who she felt was cheating.
Though hesitant, Aiden would agree to help her.
They would find her boyfriend's car and have a conversation. Till this point, everything was going normal but as soon as Arthur brought out eggs and tomatoes, Amanda felt that something interesting was going to happen.
As Arthur and Claire started throwing eggs and tomatoes on Claire's boyfriend's car, Amanda couldn't help but chuckle out loud.
The scene went more funny as Claire's boyfriend Sam came into the picture and Claire aimed eggs at his face perfectly, making for a hilarious scene.
Especially, because the whole time, Arthur was urging her to cuss at him.
"Let out all your anger at that bastard. He deserves it. Don't think and just let out. You will feel better. Trust me!"
As Arthur said that on the screen, Amanda couldn't help but laugh. Other critics and reporters were the same as the scene was truly hilarious, making up for a perfect situational comedy.
'At least the movie gets the comedy, right.'
Amanda thought in her mind as the movie continued.
***
After the initial slowness of the movie, it quickly picked up pace as Arthur and Claire started a road trip to find Charlie Morgan, the guy who used to write love letters to Claire's grandma.
It was the point where the movie truly started to shine, especially the cinematography as beautiful locations in Europe were properly shown.
The connection and friendship between Claire and Arthur also shone through as the audience got to know more about their characters.
'The characters are really well done. The acting shines out.'
Alexander Hooch, one of the oldest movie critics from Hollywood Weekly thought as his eyes stayed intact on the screen.
It was close to halfway through the movie and Alexander had already started making up his review in his mind. He felt like the movie was a breath of fresh air in dialogues and characters.
He especially liked when Arthur talked about his love for stories and how he wanted to portray them with his music. The portrayal of a budding artist was done perfectly in Alexander's eyes.
Like that, the movie continued.
He chuckled on the scenes when Arthur and Claire went off against gangsters and barely survived. He also felt that the montage of them travelling through Europe with the song 'Journey' playing in the background was really beautiful.
It was a rare thing to do in Hollywood, but it truly stood out in Alexander's eyes.
After that, as the movie entered its second half, the tone and pace of the movie changed slowly. Thankfully, it didn't happen quickly and the movie took its time.
Maybe because of that, it felt more natural.
Alexander felt the frustration, heartbreak and sadness in Arthur's eyes when he realised that Claire still loved Sam, her ex was portrayed very well.
It happened in the scene when Arthur would accidently look at Claire's phone in which she had typed out a long message to Sam but had never sent.
Realising it, it would break him.
This would eventually lead to a fight in a restaurant and after that, Claire would reject him by saying that he never was more than a friend and Arthur's hope for a relationship would be lost.
They would take different paths here.
It was only then that he would accidentally come across Charlie and in spite of being heartbroken, he would call Claire and tell him about him.
This was close to the ending of the movie and the scene after this was something that Alexander felt was one of the best.
It was one where Charlie and Arthur would have a talk about relationship and life.
Alexander felt like it was a very heavy scene done well and the contrast between Arthur and Charlie could clearly be seen. Despite not getting any happiness, Charlie would urge Arthur to not give up his hope.
In his sadness, Arthur would take out the song that he had only half completed and would try to complete it, thinking of the advice that his father had once given him.
'Every great musician has gone through heartbreak and has learned about love. They were able to portray love well because of that, their music has made a place in people's heart as they experienced the strongest emotion in the world.'
Using the advice, Arthur would try to complete the song but would be in a fix, until Charlie would help him out after listening to Arthur humming the song.
He would tell him that the first half of the song is pretty much a guy trapped in a box with a lot of questions and Arthur is trying to keep him in the box in the second half too, so the song is not getting completed.
The guy trapped needs hope.
He needs to think about the good parts of life and that he would move on from the negativity.
That advice would work as Arthur, who was still dealing with heartbreak, would be able to complete the song.
It was after that the scene that would shock Alexander would come up.
...
