All The Bright Places Review

Director Brett Haley’s romantic drama All The Bright Places, based on the bestselling novel by Jennifer Niven, manages to build an initially engrossing beginning through its soft dialogue and delicate performances. There is an evident sincerity asserted in many elements of the film, but it’s clear much before the midway point that Haley and his team are unable to harness it in order to create memorable thematic grandeurs or a poignant conclusion. Instead, preferring a much more formulaic narrative that attempts to evoke emotion through predictable moments of tragedy — resulting in a film that lightly treads on heavy topics.

All The Bright Places follows teenagers Violet and Theodore. After meeting and befriending each other, the two begin to bond and share their struggles with the emotional and physical scars of their past. Helping one another discover the values and impact of love and care.

Tragic yet relatable themes like mental health and personal insecurities have always been a prevalent foundation for many dramas that are targeted for young adults. All The Bright Places calls attention to these issues with an odd tenderness, doing so at the cost of originally and narrative coherence. Too often does the film feel forced and foreseeable, making desperate attempts at sincere bravados that usually come off as sappy and disappointing.

There seems to be generic laziness embedded in most elements of the All The Bright Places. The film fails to give its characters the development needed for their relationships to be impactful. Justice Smith and Elle Fanning give solid individual performances with the material given but lack the chemistry needed to make any moments linger. The film heavily follows a formula that has been proven to be effective but fails to do anything that sets itself apart from many other films of the genre.

All The Bright Places means well, but its select moments of tenderness and charm are often undercut by its overall bland narrative and haphazard presentation. The film does little with its runtime to produce great uses of an already tired blueprint, leaving an inconsistent and forgettable story that feels played out.

The generic and streamlined story burdens All The Bright Places into becoming a bland drama.

Produced By: Netflix
Runtime: 108 minutes
Rating: NA