It is a rare occassion when a writer/director can take an old, tired genre, like the saccarin-cursed “romantic comedy”, and make it seem fresh and new. It is an especially rare occassion to see one accomplish this feat basically on the student film level. Well … Haley’s Comet has arrived again, with NYU grads Joel Hopkins and newcomer Tunde Adebimpe. For it is these two talents who helped bring to life the amazingly subtle, yet completely realized character of George (based on the short “Jorge”). George (Tunde Adebimpe) is a shy, lovable computer tech whom one would see on the street and never think twice about, but after further delving, a sweet, sincere individual becomes apparent. He is looking to find his one true love but about to take part in a marriage arranged by his family … to a girl that he has not seen in three years. He then stumbles, quite relunctantly, into his soon-to-be best friend Gerard (Hippolyte Girardot). Gerard is a suicidal Frenchman who was just dumped by his girlfriend AS he was proposing.
George then meets Alicia (Argentinean stunner, Natalia Verbeke) and is invited to her party, he politely declines but eventually can not resist the obvious attraction felt. So, along with Gerard, he makes the trek to Alicia’s … where he meets her boyfriend (a brilliantly funny scene). George is instantly crushed by this revelation but once again accepts his destiny to marry out of convenience, not love.
This is the point where the film could easily have made that evil left turn down the road to sappy-ville starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but surpisingly it continues down the straight and narrow and delivers a fun and exciting narrative with rich characters and heartfelt emotion.
George is one of the great characters in recent memory and, along with the comedy of Gerard and the free-spiritedness of Alicia, the film works on almost all levels. Director Hopkins is to be reveared as he not only manages to bring to life three distinctive characters with whom the audience can relate, but a film that is funny as well as endearing. “Jump Tomorrow” is a great little film that is well worth your time and money.
