Will I See You Again?

As you may expect from its title, death, and the presence of death looms large over ‘Will I See You Again?’. However, this is not a film about death, though to confuse matters in so many ways it is, but rather it is a film about love, and new life, and how connected those three essential pillars of any human being’s time on this planet are to one another. This helps to make ‘Will I See You Again?”, an interesting film that probes difficult questions about life and love and loss, but in a way that never loses sight of the dramatic elements of its story.

‘Will I See You Again?’ follows Max Palmer - played by Hosea Chanchez - and Paul Jensen - played by Nick Wechsler - in the aftermath of the death of their friend Jim Turner. The three go back a long way and their friend group trio was formerly known as The Bash Brothers, even having a cabin in the woods that they felt was their ‘second home’. However, time has eroded their friendship and now neither of them even follow each other on social media, such was the divide that has grown between them.

Paul turns up in the middle of Max’s speech at the funeral, and after their brusque exchange there seems to be no hope of future renewal of their relationship. That all changes when they are both summoned to their late friend’s estate hearing, with the catch being that in order to claim their inheritance they must undergo a polygraph test. This brings to light details of their past relationship, the painful details of which they must mull over and confront with one another in order to have any chance of moving forward in love.

Interestingly, this is a film that also features faith prominently, with Max a pastor at the local church, but at the same time a gay man. He had put his homosexuality to one side, even marrying a woman - though they have now filed for divorce - presumably in order to pursue his life and career in faith. This raises interesting questions of the ability for both homosexuality and religion, in particular christianity in this case, to coexist, and writers Rhett Lindsey and Michael Perez-Lindsey navigate this well.

The script as a whole is well written, with the monologues moving and profound and the conversations fast moving and not featuring any filler, constantly driving the narrative forwards. Despite this the conclusion feels a little bit extrapolated and forced, and the film could have perhaps benefited from a few minutes longer of the pair in discussion before reaching their resolution. Michael Perez-Lindsey also directs the film, and he does so with vigour and intensity in the tense, dramatic moments, but a calm contemplative outlook in the more touching scenes of loss and grief. This is testament to strong direction, and this is consistent throughout.

Overall, ‘Will I See You Again?’ is an excellent film, that moves you in all the right ways and asks pertinent questions not just for its characters but for us all as humans.