17-year-old Jade Butterfield graduates from high school with an impressive college scholarship but few friends, focusing on her studies rather than a social life. David, another senior, has had a crush on her for years but never acted on it.
Jade asks her parents, Hugh and Anne, for a graduation party as her gift, which is very unlike her. She invites the entire class, including David. At first, the party consists of only Mr. and Mrs. Butterfield's friends. However, David arrives and gets everyone to go to Jade's party by sabotaging another party happening at the same time; his ex girlfriend Jenny’s.
The night is full of music, laughter and dancing. Jade and David are caught nearly kissing in a closet during a power outage when Jade's father, Hugh, toasts Jade. They exit the closet together, seen by all. Hugh disapproves of David, feeling he will adversely affect his daughter's medical-school internship.
David tries to please Hugh by fixing a car which belonged to Jade's late brother Chris; ironically, Hugh is the only one not delighted by this gesture. Late that night, Jade sneaks David into the study where - at her urging - they make love on the floor. They strive to make the most of the ten days Jade has left at home. Ultimately, Jade opts to decline the internship to spend the summer with David, infuriating Hugh. Hugh decides to pack up the house and whisk the family away to their lake house, believing that they need to spend more time together as a family. Jade is initially very upset, knowing that her father’s motive is to distance her from David. However, she later secretly invites David to stay with the family at lake house; he is welcomed warmly by everybody but Hugh, who his wife Anne begs to give David a chance. She points out that Jade seems truly happy for the first time in ages.
One night, while the rest of the family is setting off fireworks outside, David walks into the garage and sees Hugh cheating on Anne with their mutual friend from the graduation party. The following morning, Hugh intimidates David into keeping quiet about it. David and Jade, along with Mace, Jenny, Jade’s other brother Keith and his girlfriend Sabine, sneak into a local zoo after-hours for a night of fun. Jealous of David and Jade, Jenny calls the police; when they arrive, David stays behind so the others can escape. Hugh bails David out of jail on the condition he ends it with Jade, and she takes the internship as planned.
Hugh lies to Jade and says that David has abandoned her, but Jade doesn’t believe him and escapes in the family car. David meets Mace at a diner, and berates him for suggesting last night’s escapade. Mace secretly invited Jenny to join them, reminding David that he had friends and a life before he and Jade started dating. Jenny attempts to get close to David again, when Jade suddenly walks in and sees the pair sitting very closely. She assumes the worst and storms out of the restaurant, with David following in her wake. Jade and David have a fight which ends with Jade driving off, and very soon after, getting into an accident. At the hospital, Hugh gives David’s father Harry a restraining order to keep David away from Jade who has suffered only minor injuries from the crash. Upon being discharged from the hospital, she tries to contact David - having realized he was never unfaithful to her and never would be. But David’s dad won't allow it because of the restraining order. Over the next few months, David and Jade each try to see other people; but both are unhappy.
David runs into Anne at a bookstore, and she tells him she admires his and Jade's love. She arranges for David to meet Jade at the airport when she comes home for the holidays. They reaffirm their love and Jade plans to run away with David that night, while Anne confronts Hugh about his obsession with destroying David's life; including Hugh never sending her college recommendation letter for him.
At home, Hugh reams Keith and Sabine for listening to records from Chris's collection. Keith seconds his mother's sentiments regarding what losing Chris has done to Hugh. Then Keith announces he is moving in with Sabine, and Anne opts to join them. Hugh then discovers Jade preparing to leave with David; who is waiting outside. He charges outside in a rage, knocking over a lit candle on the way and furiously attacking David. Jade rushes to his defense, proclaiming that it was Hugh, not David; who tore the family apart.
The defeated Hugh goes back inside, discovering the fire started in Chris's room. Jade and David see the house in flames, so he rushes back in to save Hugh, who is struggling to gather up Chris' possessions. When David falls unconscious, Hugh drops everything and helps him to safety instead. Outside, they put aside their differences while waiting for medical attention.
Anne and Hugh amicably separate, but remain determined to rediscover their love, inspired by Jade and David; who are flying out to California, having been selected as maid of honor and best man at Sabine and Keith's wedding. Both couples celebrate on the beach, where they camp. Sharing David's bedroll, Jade fondly recalls how her first love - the relationship she shares with him - was everything all at once, the kind of undying love worth fighting to keep.
The first trailer was released on December 23, 2013.[6] The film earned a domestic gross of $23,438,250, barely over its estimated production budget of $20 million.[3]
Reception
Endless Love has received negative reviews from film critics. Criticism was mainly made towards the many liberties taken with the original source material. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on 93 reviews, with the consensus: "Blander than the original Endless Love and even less faithful to the source material, this remake is clichéd and unintentionally silly."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 30 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews" from critics.[8]
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "This Endless Love is a photo shoot, not a movie. It'd play better as a slideshow of jpgs. Even nine-year-old girls ought to cry foul on this movie's endless blandness."[9] Ronnie Scheib of Variety wrote: "In The Greatest (2009) and Country Strong (2010), Feste proved herself quite skilled, if not especially innovative, at limning her characters’ emotional travails. But subtlety, complexity and even the slightest modicum of realism elude her here."[10]
Stephanie Merry of The Washington Post said "The movie feels like Nicholas Sparks fan fiction."[11]
Film historian Leonard Maltin gave the remake a more positive review than the original, giving it two out of a possible four stars (he gave its 1981 predecessor zero out of four, rating it a "BOMB"). Yet he described the newer film as "Mediocre ... This is sure to connect with its target audience -- and it's Oscarworthy compared to the 1981 version -- yet it remains overwrought and pointless for fans of the novel. Moreover, Lionel Richie's title tune (the only memorable aspect of the original) is sorely missed here."[12]
In 2013, after reading the screenplay for the film, Scott Spencer - the author of the novel on which the film was based - wrote that "It's about one hundred pages, and the only ones that were not dreary were sciatica inducing".[13] In 2014 he wrote that his novel "has been even more egregiously and ridiculously misunderstood" in making the remake than in the 1981 film.[14]
