Subverting the inclinations of the romantic comedy genre is neither a new nor a particularly worthwhile enterprise when it is done so unimaginatively as in the past few years. Attempting to remedy this is Lee Toland Krieger’s CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER, a shrewd, likeable and well-meaning indie that couples sympathetic performances with fine writing and sincere humour.

The film starts with a snapshot montage of the titular characters, who fall for each other at a young age and gradually start a life together, a life that has been carried forward to their mid-thirties. The affable Rashida Jones co-writes and stars as Celeste, a savvy and goal-orientated trend forecaster for a high-end marketing firm, while the usually one-note Andy Samberg plays Jesse, a bumming freelance artist with an unremitting charm. As genre conformity abides, the two have indeed been married, however it is slowly revealed that they are in fact enjoying an unusually close separation, something that confounds their friends.

As they begin to explore their newfound lives as single people, to sometimes humorous effect, the once happily married couple begin to question their decisions, with Celeste finding it particularly difficult to move on. Matching a typically cool soundtrack with the usual trappings of American indie cinema (though don’t let Krieger’s subtle leanings toward formula put you off), the film is an achingly hip and thoroughly modern musing on life and relationships, attuned to contemporary culture in all its consumerist forms. “American culture is dying”, Celeste surmises at one stage, yet Krieger’s film offers an opposing argument.

…an achingly hip and thoroughly modern musing on life and relationships…

Just as last year’s LIKE CRAZY set about depicting the painful dissolving of a seemingly harmonious couple, CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER tackles the rarely portrayed issue of the pangs of entering into premature nuptials. Although the film never precisely divulges the reasons why they chose to part ways, it paints a believable and at times poignant portrait of divorce and the trials a couple face when entering into an adult relationship, injecting it with a sense of wit and insight.

Much like Kristen Wiig, Jones is a daffy blend of charm and neurosis, and delivers an exceptional performance bolstered by her sharp screenplay (co-written with Will McCormack, who also has a role). Despite feeling slightly too familiar, with the central flipsided conceit making room for a tendency to slip into cliché at times (including its tidy finale), Kreiger’s film is visually sleek and ably handled, offering a welcome jolt to a genre accosted by Woody Allen wannabes and contagious Katherine Heigl wedding vehicles.

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