Tribeca 2021: Lorelei
TRIBECALorelei is about two individuals who were once very much in love. Two high-school sweethearts Wayland (Pablo Schreiber) and Dolores (Jenna Malone), meet after 15 years when Wayland is released from prison. Dolores is now a single mother struggling to support her three kids, who are all named after different shades of blue. Soon after their reunion, Wayland moves in with them and becomes a much-needed father figure for the children and a wonderful companion for Dolores. Struggling to pay the bills, Wayland finds himself drawn back to his old ways as Dolores yearns for her pre-motherhood dream of living in Los Angeles.
Having had its world premiere at the Deauville Film Festival on 9th September 2020, Sabrina Doyle’s debut feature film Lorelei seems to be postcard-perfect, a lesson straight out of the set of traditional romantic movies. Nevertheless, the wonderful thing about this movie is that it takes what seems like a story viewers have heard already (at least in bits and pieces) and still moves them deeply. It speaks about love in a way that most romantic movies miss by speaking in cliché or overshoot by adding in numerous complications to dramatize things. There have been other great movies to comment on love in recent years, but this movie fills a need that those other movies miss: the need for a straightforward, sweep-you-off-your-feet romance. Audiences who are cynical about dreamy romance may find themselves rolling their eyes, but Lorelei does end up achieving its ultimate goal: making the viewer feel a lot of emotions.
The lead performances from Jena Malone and Pablo Schreiber are brilliant, with electrifying on-screen chemistry. Audiences immediately fall in love with these characters and want to follow every step of their love story. As it progresses, the viewer truly cares about what will happen to them, and has in their own mind how they want things to turn out. They follow the characters’ trepidation with interest and root for them to find some proper closure or happiness. It is that type of film, where one starts to become part of the story, and wants the characters to act or say something specific. The film is also supported by breathtaking cinematography and camerawork, which are the standout besides sublime acting. Its palette of grey and blue is personified through the film’s beautiful cinematography. The constant melodic rhythm drives its duration so smoothly that before the viewer knows it, they are saying goodbye to characters who seem more like family than friends, both to each other and to the viewer.
Lorelei is an incredibly humane film and full of tenderness, touching on something hidden deep within the human spirit: the desire to keep moving on in life. While most other indie romances nowadays are purely about the complications of relationships, this one is about the characters and how they adjust their lives according to circumstances. It offers a comforting embrace and escape, filling up emptiness with warmth in the form of wide-open space.