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"Director: Lee Toland Kreiger; Screenwriters: Rashida Jones, Will McCormack; Starring: Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, Elijah Wood, Emma Roberts, Ari Graynor, Eric Christian Olsen; Running time: 92 mins; Certificate: 15  Perhaps tired and frustrated with playing second banana in big screen comedies such as I Love You, Man and The Big Year, Rashida Jones went off and penned her own starring role in Celeste and Jesse Forever. Written with Will McCormack, the film takes a fresh approach to the romantic comedy - albeit through a fairly conventional genre framework - by fast-forwarding to the end of a relationship. From the outset the film presents the titular Celeste and Jesse (Jones and Saturday Night Live&amp;#039;s Andy Samberg) as an item. They play games in the car, sing twee Lilly Allen songs, discuss Jesse&amp;#039;s lack of employment and have dinner with friends Beth (Ari Graynor) and Tucker (Eric Christian Olsen). Before long we learn that they&amp;#039;re separated and about to get divorced. They grew up together as best friends, and despite the end of their romantic union, they&amp;#039;re still very much entangled in each other&amp;#039;s lives. So much so in fact that Jesse still lives in his workshop at their marital home.  Their relationship is thrown for a loop when Jesse begins seeing Veronica (Rebecca Dayan) and Celeste experiences a string of dating disasters. In truth she has outgrown him, but their seemingly unbreakable bond means the pair both begin to question why they&amp;#039;re apart. Celeste works as a trend forecaster for a successful Los Angeles PR firm and Jesse, despite being an out-of-work artist, leads a content and happy life. This cosy setup threatens to tip Celeste and Jesse Forever into the realm of Middle Class Problems: The Movie, so it&amp;#039;s to Jones and Samberg&amp;#039;s credit that they&amp;#039;re able to create characters with charm and likeability. There&amp;#039;s a palpable chemistry between the pair, too, meaning that the twists and turns in their relationship are always believable. Jones, McCormack and director Lee Toland Krieger strive hard to puncture rom-com clich\u00C3\u00A9s, yet there are still plenty of genre holdovers that prevent Celeste and Jesse from hoisting itself up to the level of a 500 Days of Summer or Juno. Elijah Wood makes a brief appearance as the gay best friend, Graynor and Olsen alternate between dispensing wisecracks and sage advice, and there&amp;#039;s an uncomfortable wedding speech from Jones thrown in for good measure. Celeste and Jesse Forever falls somewhere between being a Sundance-style indie and a mainstream commercial crowd-pleaser. It never commits to either, and as a result too often feels like it&amp;#039;s going through the motions to hit signposted genre points. Ultimately, though, this is an enjoyable and breezy enough watch thanks to its appealing lead duo.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/review/a442156/celeste-and-jesse-forever-review-rashida-jones-takes-centre-stage/>