Celeste and Jesse Forever - B

Rated R, 90 minutes

Charming leads best thing about the pleasant “Celeste and Jesse Forever”

Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg

 "Celeste and Jesse" is a pleasant, mildly amusing yet bittersweet romantic comedy about the importance of..not  staying together.  Starring Rashida Jones of “The Office” and “Saturday Night Live’s” Andy Samberg, they’re an agreeable, attractive pair who overcome some of the screenplay’s more deliberate conventions. Celeste ( Jones) and Jesse (Samberg) met in high school, married young and are growing apart. Now thirty, Celeste is the driven owner of her own media consulting firm, Jesse is once again unemployed and in no particular rush to do anything with his life. Celsete decides to divorce Jesse, but then begins to question whether that is the right thing to do as they become involved with other people. Directed by Lee Toland Krieger with a screenplay co-written by Jones and fellow actor Will McCormack, the alluring film is best when it doesn’t try too hard to be different. Samberg and Jones make for a cute pair, even when they’re not together.  The supporting cast of young character actors including Chris Messina, Ari Graynor, Emma Roberts and Elijah Wood add solid support for the leads, though we’re far more interested in seeing Celeste and Jesse. I’m glad that Jones and especially Samberg can find material that suits their strong comic talents instead of the more low brow stuff that they tend to end up in (this is good enough that I can forgive Samberg for the crass “That’s My Boy”). The ending of “Celeste and Jesse Forever” is ironic and bittersweet given the title, but then maybe that’s the point. Worth a look for a slightly different take on the whole rom com film.