Ineptly shot and listlessly written, “Endless” is a far cry from possessing those basic qualities. What it instead has is an uncharismatic couple that consists of Riley (Alexandra Shipp) and Chris (Nicholas Hamilton), two California-based teenagers madly in love. In a rosy and sun-dappled prologue montage, the well-heeled Riley’s voiceover introduces us to her relationship with the spirited Chris, coming from more modest means. This opinionated, art-loving young woman, who apparently graduated as one of the top of her class, got into Georgetown Law and interned at the DA’s office, says falling in love and starting to go out with Chris is the most important thing that happened to her that year, even though they don’t make much sense on paper.
Why it has to be emphasized that they don’t make sense together is anyone’s guess—they seem to see eye-to-eye often (apart from Chris’ affection for motorcycles, an overplayed hobby that Riley’s parents don’t approve) and it’s not like they are at an age where they have to consider big, serious steps like marriage. Nevertheless, trouble creeps into their idyllic romance soon enough. Riley receives her above-mentioned acceptance from Georgetown—her euphoric reading of the letter in her room gets captured by DPs Frank Borin and Mark Dobrescu in a stalker-ish, surveillance camera fashion, among the more puzzling visual decisions of the duo. And during an argument about his girlfriend’s future through which Chris feels free to mansplain that Riley should study art, not law, a careless moment in the car with Riley behind the wheel causes the collision that claims Chris’ life.
You can guess the rest of the playbook from here on out. Suffocating with feelings of guilt, Riley struggles to get back on track with her life while her parents act like the worst kind of rich movie villains, concerned only about saving their daughter from legal ramifications of the crash. A deeper, smarter movie would have explored the class divergence between Chris and Riley at this point. But not “Endless”—what could have been a heartbreaking avenue gets reduced down to Chris’ mom (Famke Janssen) yelling at Riley while crying by her kitchen table in startlingly bad hair extensions.
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