Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue is one of those movies that doesn’t have anything really wrong with it. But there’s also nothing I can point out as being particularly good. It just sort of is.

The film follows 50-something Marion. After 22 years of marriage, Marion leaves her husband. While rebuilding her life, Marion meets Claude. Of course, Marion and Claude’s friendship isn’t just friendship. This is surprising to both women, as neither have dated another woman before. Additionally challenging is Marion’s teenage daughter. Understandably, she’s upset about her parents’ divorce. Daughter Justine isn’t exactly thrilled by her mom dating another woman so soon after divorcing Justine’s father.

I give Out of the Blue credit for moving along fairly quick. Marion divorces her husband in the first ten minutes. She confesses her feelings to Claude at the half hour mark. The film has a schedule of plot points that it sticks to well. But it doesn’t really matter that the film has a clear road map of events. Because I didn’t overly care about the characters. Part of this might be because the film doesn’t take its time. Marion and the other characters all feel pretty flat. They feel more like archetypes than real people. That makes it hard to get invested in their domestic drama.

The film is also guilty of a pretty lazy third act cliche. At an uncertain time in their relationship, Marion receives word that Claude’s been in a serious accident. She rushes to the hospital to find Claude injured but alive. The two women tearfully confess their love. This isn’t the first, nor last time I’ll see a low stakes domestic drama throw in a sudden medical emergency. And it’s almost always a car accident. This is such a route one way of adding a sudden, dramatic moment when the story hadn’t been dramatic up until then. It also lends itself well to a big emotional love confession. Obviously, a real-life car accident is traumatizing. But in film? This use of car or other medical accident feels far, far too easy. It’s like a flashing light that the writer didn’t plan enough for the story’s climax and ending.

Out of the Blue is one of many middling TV movies. Again, nothing here is overtly terrible. It’s technically competent and holds together as a story. But talk about damning with faint praise. This is a pretty forgettable movie. Partially because as a TV movie, it was likely never ambitious to be anything other than good. With my list of WLW movies now featuring over 1100 films, I can’t exactly recommend this. It’s such a neutral experience. And I don’t think art is successful if my response to it is a resounding shrug.

Overall rating: 5.1/10

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