MovieChat Forums > Celeste & Jesse Forever (2012) Discussion > inadvertently gives Jesse too much credi...

inadvertently gives Jesse too much credit.


One thing that bothered me about this movie was that I've never seen an unemployed slacker who mooches off his soon to be ex wife & then gets a one night stand pregnant come off more glowingly. I know their intention was not to condemn Celeste for daring to move on from this guy, but especially because the film shifts to her downward spiral & essentially leaves Jesse's POV (where you would think it'd be a bit more stressful than comes across) it left an unappealing taste in my mouth about what the film said, intentionally or not.

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But he stops being a slacker after he finds out about the pregnancy.

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I agree. I found myself rooting for Jesse rather than Celeste. Celeste left Jesse for all the right reasons, yet I liked Jesse more. They made him much more likeable and you felt sorry for him. I felt sorry for Celeste too, but it made it seem like her decision to leave Jesse was all her fault. Jesse wasn't he perfect husband hat she just up and decided to leave for some reason, she had perfectly legitimate reasons to divorce him. Yet the movie basically paints Jesse to be a saint. Don't get me wrong I loved Jesse and I think Andy Samberg is an excellent actor but you're right, they gave his character way too much credit.

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I don't think the movie painted Jesse in a good light or anything, but rather we see so much more of Celeste that we understand her flaws as well as her positive attributes. With Jesse, we get a sense early on that he's a slacker, but after the pregnancy announcement he apparently turns his life completely around and has a perfect relationship -- but again, we don't really see that, because Jesse sort of disappears for long stretches.

I agree that it sort of bothered me, but I love Rashida Jones and found her character interesting enough to carry a movie. But screen time could've been parsed out better.

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