Jump Tomorrow
(2001)
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A love story built on honest, clever, quiet jubilation--steering clear of mushiness and sentimentalism--JUMP TOMORROW interweaves the lives and dreams of three unique characters. George, aka Jorge (Tunde Adebimpe), is a sweet, shy man with deadpan facial expressions and a monotone voice. But underneath his stoic surface, Jorge is a true tiger with wild dreams and a passion for life. He takes a few days off work to travel to Niagara Falls where he is to meet his bride, Sophie, for a marriage arranged by his African relatives. On the way to Niagara, Jorge meets Gerard (Hippolyte Girardot), an outspoken French man with his heart on his sleeve whose would-be fiancee has just refused to marry him. The two forlorn men are invited to a party by a beautiful, exciting Spanish woman, Alicia (Natalia Verbeke), with whom Jorge falls instantly in love. The rest of the film is a game of leapfrog, with the unlikely--but perfectly compatible--pair of Jorge and Gerard piggybacking Alicia and her spaced out Canadian boyfriend, Nathan, along the highway to Niagara Falls...and beyond. |
Nominated for five British Independent Film Awards, Joel Hopkins's first feature film is a feel-good road movie with an outsider's sense of place and a sensitive insight into the workings of the human heart. Essentially telling the story of a road trip from New York to Niagara Falls, Hopkins is aided enormously by a cosmopolitan and largely unknown cast. Lead actor Tunde Adebimpe excels as the timid Nigerian pen pusher, whose life is transformed on a meandering odyssey to his wedding day in the company of an eccentric Frenchman (Hippolyte Girardot), a ravishing Spaniard (Natalia Verbeke) and her snooty English fiancé (James Wilby). Recalling Wim Wenders's 1970s road movie trilogy and its dissection of backwoods America, which climaxed with Kings of the Road in 1976, the English-born director has completely avoided the debutant's tendency to self-indulgence and produced a film of rare subtlety and charm.
Halliwell's Film Guide
A would-be romantic comedy that turns out to be more a buddy movie about an odd couple of near-strangers; it has an enjoyably quirky quality.