I Love You Forever (2025) Review
“I Love You Forever” joins a growing group of movies that exhibit how abuse begins from even the most unlikely of people, specifically men.
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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“I Love You Forever” Film Details
Runtime: 1 Hour and 29 Minutes
Release Date: February 14, 2025
Initially Available On/Via: Digital Release
Advisory Film Rating: Not Rated
Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Romance, Young Adult
Distributor(s): Utopia
Director(s): Cazzie David, Elisa Kalani
Writer(s): Cazzie David, Elisa Kalani
Summary
Mackenzie is in law school with aspirations to work in local government, and while she is acing it in school, has friends, and a decent social life, her romantic life is trash. Her current guy, who is in her life without a title, has been sleeping with her for two years and treats her like crap. This makes it so a meet-cute at Mackenzie’s best friend’s party with Finn seems like a fairy tale.
Which, initially, it is. However, Finn goes from trying to pull Mackenzie’s insecurities out of her head to bringing nothing but chaos into her life; with this, she realizes this fairy tale is a grade-A horror movie.
Character Descriptions
Mackenzie (Sofia Black-D’Elia)
A law student with aspirations to work in local government, Mackenzie has struggled with dating for what time does she have to do so? Hence a two year situationship and the initial shock of Finn being a loving boyfriend. However, while book smart, unfortunately, Mackenzie sometimes is blinded, willingly, by Finn’s actions.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Single Drunk Female.”
Finn (Ray Nicholson)
A new journalist by trade, when Mackenzie first meets Finn he seems damn near perfect. He is hot, smart, chivalrous, knows how to talk to a woman who hasn’t had the best dating resume, and also has insecurities. But, it seems Finn has his own insecurities, and rather than talking them out like an adult, he is prone to tantrums that can lead to him threatening his own life, at worse, or painting the other person as the bad person, at best.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Smile 2.”
Jake (Raymond Cham Jr.)
Jake is Mackenzie’s consistent sex partner, but by no means friendly enough to be considered an F-buddy, who almost strictly engages with her for sex, rarely for anything else.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Five Points.”
Lucas (Jon Rudnitsky)
Lucas is Mackenzie’s guy best friend whose relationship with Ally goes back and forth between coming off like bickering siblings to being a little bit flirtatious.
- The actor is also known for their role in “Home Again.”
Ally (Cazzie David)
Ally is a privileged young woman working on a fine arts degree who can be seen as a bit whiny at times.
- The actor is also known for their role in “The Umbrella Academy: Season 3.”
Review
Highlight(s)
- How Invested You Initially Are In Finn and Mackenzie [88/100]
Because of how things are set up early in the movie with Jake, who won’t as much as give Mackenzie a full glass of water after having sex, Finn seems like a blessing. He makes grand gestures, reassures Mackenzie, and does all the things that can make you forget the trailer to this film, explicitly letting you know where this is heading.
Which makes things all the more upsetting when they go to hell.
- How EXHAUSTING Finn Becomes [86/100]
Finn never lays a hand on Mackenzie, just to start, but he uses every tactic in the book to emotionally abuse her and manipulate her. You’ll watch that for more than 40 minutes and it is the most exhausting experience. But, the point is, you are getting a taste of what Mackenzie is going through and what many people in her situation do.
At first, Finn minimizes his crazy to her, and feeds on her past relationship woes to create the idea he isn’t in the wrong, she is. The gaslighting is infuriating to the point of wanting to yell at the screen and present all the questions people who know nothing about being in the situation. Be it why does Mackenzie stay, why is she letting this man have so much influence over her Mackenzie and are the good moments really equal or better to the ones where he damn near ruins her relationships and life outside of him?
But, again, in watching this for the majority of the movie, you are pressed to pick up on the answers. If you haven’t had a decent romantic relationship, how can you judge what a good one is? How do you leave someone who threatens to hurt themselves? You were single and struggled with dating, so maybe when they say you are the problem, that is the truth, and you need to work on yourself.
To say Mackenzie was probably targeted is an understatement, and to not advise you to get your favorite headache medicine before watching this would make me cruel.
- The Helplessness of Mackenzie’s Friends [83/100]
When it comes to Ally and Lucas, while they do have lives of their own, being that Ally is Mackenzie’s roommate, she bears witness to the love bombing, one incident when she thinks Mackenzie and Finn are having sex in the bathroom when really he is having a tantrum, but so comes the issue again – he isn’t physically hurting Mackenzie, so what can she do? Add in Lucas, who Finn sometimes worries about, and you have this situation where you know your friend is going through it but what are your options?
We all know if there is a bruise or something like that, we can call the cops or maybe get physically involved in an effort to protect our friend (depending on the State or country). But there aren’t any laws or shields against emotional or mental abuse. Add in if your friend keeps the relationship going, what can you do?
This helplessness and inability to genuinely do anything adds to the exhaustion, for in some ways, you realize you have to just ride out the situation and be supportive of your friend, even as she forces her once autonomous life to revolve around another person’s erratic feelings.
Overall
Our Rating (85/100): Positive (Worth Seeing) – Recommended
Similar to “Fair Play” and “Cat Person,” “I Love You Forever” has the desire to show you why dating is hard, especially for women. You can give a guy a chance and think things are wonderful in the beginning, but once you get settled in and he gets comfortable, beauty becomes a beast. Which in some ways, you feel the need to navigate, calm, and work with, for this is your boyfriend, and you sometimes have insecurities and negative thoughts as well.
However, once things escalate to the point of affecting your personal life, and now you have insane texts, your phone buzzing or ringing longer than when you ignore your morning alarm, something has to be done. But, what the two movies mentioned don’t do that we see in “I Love You Forever” is show what happens when the love you had for a person becomes the ultimate excuse for their behavior, and you operate, even while utterly drained and frustrated, based on their whims.
It is a reminder that, no matter where you live, how educated you are, the support system you have, and how much he says, does, or is all the right things, abuse can still happen, and he can not even lay a single finger on you, and it still is abuse.
Content Information
- Dialog: Cursing
- Violence: Torture, Self-Harm, Notable Fight Scenes, Domestic Abuse
- Sexual Content: Nudity (Mild, Limited [Male – Backside Only]), Sexual Situations (Implied)
- Miscellaneous: Drinking, Smoking
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