More Than Friends

I really wanted to enjoy More Than Friends. Writer/director/star Milon V. Parker is an incredibly passionate filmmaker with a unique point of view. But in case you didn’t guess, passionate filmmaker with a unique point of view equals movies with little budget. More than that though, as a romantic drama, More Than Friends had so much drama it stopped working as a romance.

The film follows two life-long best friends. Tennille and Angela met as children. By the time they’re adults, their friendship is a cornerstone of both of their lives and personalities. This is despite some differences. Tennille is masculine and openly gay. Angela is very traditionally feminine and somewhat uncomfortable with gay culture outside of Tennille. However, when both Tennille and Angela get romantic partners, the holding pattern of their relationship crumbles. Angela begins seeing a still married man. Tennille begins dating Ava, who is spoiled and possessive. Through these romances, Tennille and Angela grapple with their feelings for each other.

Obviously, you need drama to move a story forward. But More Than Friends is over two hours long. Angela and Tennille don’t get together until the last ten minutes. And it’s in the most dramatic way possible. Angela procrastinates on telling Tennille her feelings until the day of Tennille’s wedding. This romance came too late in the game. The film successfully conveys that the two are best friends who have feelings for each other. But after two hours of such aimless dancing around each other, I don’t really care anymore.

It doesn’t help that previous to their romantic ending, the one time they kiss is really, really yikes. Tennille comes to Angela very drunk. Angela puts her to bed and sleeps along side her. While Tennille is still drunk and mostly asleep, Angela feels her up and begins kissing her. Tennille finally wakes only to immediately vomit and pass out again. When she wakes up the second time, Angela hides the entire incident from Tennille.

A childhood friends-to-lovers story is a classic, very romantic trope. It’s also one I love. What I love about it is that when these characters get together, I’m more certain the relationship will last. After all, the two characters already know each other super well. Yet with More Than Friends, I’m not certain the romance between Tennille and Angela is going to last. Both characters bring so much drama into each other’s lives. Jealousy, possessiveness and miscommunication power this film. Best case scenario, Angela and Tennille’s drama tendencies compliment each other and they’re fine. Worst case scenario? Their friendship already lead to a lot of drama. Adding romance to the mix just adds a spark to that powder keg.

On top of the story missing the mark, I can’t say I liked the look and feel of the film. Admittedly, a lot of this is due to budget restraints. So I don’t want to go too much into it. There is a bit of a tonal mismatch though. Sometimes, Milon V. Parker leans into the realism. This stylistic choice is again, likely due to budget constraints. But when it feels intentional, it works. But Parker also seems to have a desire for the stylistic romance of film. And attempts to portray that fall rather flat. Plus, it doesn’t harmonize with the scenes and shots that lean towards realism.

Really, the fact that I didn’t enjoy this film comes down to that I didn’t root for this romance. Flaws in a character are obviously good. But More Than Friends spent two hours showing exactly how flawed these characters are. It spent a lot more time on that than on scenes where they clearly belong together. So, this over two hour film is all drama and has little romance. And that’s a bummer. Because I’m very lonely and want to soothe that loneliness through idealized onscreen love stories.

Overall rating: 3.1/10

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