Nina Forever (2015) Reviews

• Well made, but so boring.

  Sleepin_Dragon2016-05-21

  I will never give up on a film, within reason, but there were times during this that I either wanted to fall asleep, or just switch off. I wanted to see it, purely because it had Fiona O'Shaughnessy, a girl who's quickly become one of my favourite actresses, hugely talented, and that voice, she is fantastic, but even she couldn't inject the spark that failed to light this film. A film that crosses over so many different genres, it's attempting to be avant garde, psychological, black humoured, it does bits of each, but isn't particularly strong in any. The music was great throughout, acting spot on, maybe it was the direction, just a bit slow. This should have been awesome. 5/10

• NIna For..........never.

  kboote2016-05-19

  I felt that this was an interesting premise and I really enjoyed the first half hour of the film. However I have to admit that ultimately by the end I was left with an overall feeling of disappointment and missed opportunity. The overall highlights were the scenes between the main character Rob, Cian Barry, and Nina's parents. Nina's first appearance is also striking but I felt the scene itself was too rushed and the build up and gradual indications that Nina was in the background could have been handled with greater subtly which would have created more tension. However after this excitable rush to reveal Nina the second half of the film drags so there are definitive issue with the pacing of the film. In some instances the casting was also far from ideal. The actress who played Holly, Abigail Hardingham, was a very natural and engaging presence, hanging on in there with the relationship despite all of the bizarre difficulties because she wanted to appear "dark" and not "vanilla" and to be committed to her first real boyfriend (although in reality the actress is too pretty to have been "left on the shelf"). However Holly is given no back story and due to the underwriting of her character we become increasingly frustrated that the motivations of Holly become blurred in the second half of the film as her love for her rather dull boyfriend starts to become diluted. There are two serious problems with the film. The first is the casting of Fiona O'Shaugnessy as Nina herself. The character as written and acted is a highly un-haunting presence. Nina as portrayed in the film is lacking in charm, beauty or personality. Her mocking baby like voice is so irritating that you'd have probably been glad to see the back of her not be so haunted by her to the extent that you couldn't move on from her!! Not to be ungallant but Ms Shaughnessy is also much too old to be playing the fantasy girlfriend role – more suited to the bitter divorcée! -and this unbalances the whole film. The last half hour was a bit of a drag and the other serious problem, the "twist" ending of switching over the "curse of Nina " to Holly, was silly and felt tagged on. The Writer/Directors., the Blaine Brothers, should have had the conviction to retain faith in the subtext of people being unable to move on from a relationship. If we had a much sweeter and charming Nina and a more grown up conclusion ( perhaps along the lines of Morettoi/Grimaldi's "Quiet Chaos" ) in which eventually Nina disappeared because the main character was able to finally move on we would have had a poignant conclusion and a more consistent tone to add to the humour and interesting premises. Instead the filmmakers resorted to immature gimmicky that betrayed the original theme of the film. So maybe next time gentlemen make a film that has the conviction to respect people's intelligence rather than assuming film goers need juvenile sarcasm and a twist ending?

• A multi-layered psychological drama...

  ben-12512015-10-30

  ...with a bit of Rom-Com/Horror thrown in for good measure. We all bring baggage into a new relationship - this film makes the invisible visible and takes you on an enjoyable journey through the process of 'letting go': grief, loss, flights of fantasy, darkness, obsession. It's a haunting story of the impact we have on each other, regardless of whether we acknowledge or even see it happening. Some people are attracted to the Horror elements (i.e. the blood) but don't be put off by that if you're not a Horror fan. I'm not. And the level of gore is appropriate for the telling of this story: being haunted by an ex- who appears in bed with you and your new partner every time you attempt to have sex. Nina Forever will make you feel, but then it will make you think. Must see!

• Absurd and disturbingly funny. It shouldn't make sense.....

  manuelasaez2016-02-13

  The premise of this movie makes no sense; the ghost of a man's ex-girlfriend shows up, bloody and battered from the accident that caused her death, every time he has sex. It's absurd, and entirely creepy, if it weren't for how hilarious the ghost of the dead ex-girlfriend (Nina), is. Every line out of her mouth comes of with such a dark and dry wit, indicative of a very British humor, and her appearance broke up some of the more serious parts of the movie with some levity. Th acting is top notch, the SFX is disgustingly well done, and the music is amazing. I just don't think that the parts of the film make for an effective whole. As the movie went on, I started to wonder, "But, why?". Why is she haunting her ex? Did he do something to her that warranted it? Is she taking revenge on him for some reason? It just doesn't come together as well as I would have liked, but the individual parts sure were entertaining. One of the most absurd films I have seen in a long time. Every time I think that all topics have been covered in film, someone comes along and does something wholly original. This is definitely one of those times. Watch this film to just revel in the crazy.

• No thanks Nina

  bobhartshorn2015-11-17

  Nina Forever is the blackly comic debut feature from the writer/director team of Ben & Chris Blaine which begins very promisingly with supermarket drone Holly (Abigail Hardingham) wooing her work colleague Rob, (Cian Barry), into a romantic relationship. Rob is game but still grieving with suicidal tendencies from the death of his previous lover, Nina, who was killed in a motoring accident. This opening segment is well set up with offbeat humour, convincing performances and a disquieting atmosphere thanks to Oliver Russell's sullen cinematography. Once Rob and Holly hop into the sack however, the brothers Blaine hit premature ejaculation and out pops the bloody apparition that is Nina, spawned from the hereafter for a sabotage mission. Her bizarre and shocking introduction from the inside beyond of Rob's mattress is as impressive as it is gruesome, and quite understandably deflates the newly acquainted couple's appetite for love making. But almost as quickly as Nina's arrival comes the realisation that this is as good as it gets and the story has reached its final destination in stalled county. The scenario is served up again and again and again as, rather than screaming her lungs out and running for her life, Holly perseveres and messes in (pun intended) with replacing the gore stained bed sheets every time naughty Nina appears from the afterlife to spanner the would-be blossoming romance with the supposedly acerbic diatribes spewed forth from the bowels of her gob. Add in Rob's continuing and, it has to be said, occasionally hilarious affiliation with his undead girlfriend's parents, and you've pretty much got everything Nina Forever has to offer. There is little more here than a much laboured conceit about not being able to move on with one's life and being tied to the past blah blah blah, with little variation or story progression to hold the interest. And then there is the problem of Nina herself: in place of a sympathetic and menacing entity from beyond the grave, we have an irritant bore with the voice of a child and the charismatic black hole demeanour of a refugee from Made-In-Chelsea. Whatever it was about this tiresome It-Girl wannabe Rob found so enchanting and beautiful one can only guess at, as any charm and personality plus points she may have once possessed must have been wheeled off to the knackers yard for crushing along with the vehicle she perished in. Once again, the writing can take a lot of the blame, but this is shared by the miscasting of Fiona O'Shaughnessy in the title role. She looks physically too long in the tooth for young Rob, yet (ironically) lacks the mature thespian chops required to flesh out the complexities this, admittedly difficult role demands, resulting in a double whammy fail. Some compensation arrives late in the shape of Rob's moving confrontation in a restaurant with Nina's Mum and Dad and the torch passing fate afforded Holly in the closing scenes. Both are well delivered and move things forward slightly. But it's too little too late. The brothers Blaine have over reached themselves with a half baked story that, despite its allusions to surrealism and the macabre, is far too well behaved & normal for the tropes contained within. Either an off-the-wall, avant-garde, art-house telling or a straight, hell-for-leather, horror roller-coaster would have been preferable treatment to the underwhelming elegance this non-starter has to offer. Better luck next time boys.