Four childhood friends promise to meet again in their hometown whenever they can. After more than a decade without seeing each other, they finally honor their promise when one of them is about to give birth. The girls - now, women - must adjust to each other again, their personalities accentuated by very different personal and life decisions. Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, at first glance, "Now and Then (1995)" is a simple coming of age, but it brings much more, mainly about female union and cultural changes.
Narrated by Samantha (Demi Moore), there is an initial strangeness due to her and Teeny's (Melanie Griffith) discomfort upon returning to the city in the interior of Indiana, both because they are unaccustomed to it and because of the flood of memories that the place brings. At the same time, Chrissy (Rita Wilson) and Roberta (Rosie O'Donnell) - who have never left Shelby - are not used to the "rhythm" that the others bring from the metropolis (a polarized rural-urban concept that still exists, but which perhaps appears much more marked because of the season). Despite this, nostalgia speaks louder and they remember the last summer they shared, in the mid-1970s. It is then that the children's cast shines, with Roberta, Samantha, Chrissy and Teeny being played in their younger versions by Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffmann, Ashley Aston Moore and Thora Birch, respectively.
The script for "Now and Then" turns the girls' vacation almost into a suspense story, with superstitions about the city's cemetery, mysteries involving old residents and official records. All this with the personal challenges of each of them: relationships with their parents, the beginning of puberty, the death of loved ones, the taboo of divorce and even a contextualization of the political scenario of the time, with the Vietnam War. It's worth noting how a film of less than two hours manages to bring so many themes together and still work well. Perhaps the quantity and variety of subjects works precisely because there are four protagonists, helping to distinguish each of them well, despite still fitting them into stereotypes. Interestingly, screenwriter I. Marlene King would be the future creator of the teen drama series "Pretty Little Liars" - also marked by constant twists and turns.
Trying to save money to buy a tree house, the girls do small tasks around the neighborhood. This is where the Wormer brothers, the enemy group of the main quartet, also live. They bother not only the girls, but everyone they meet, having typically "masculine" behavior - violent, noisy, exaggerated. One night, the brothers' leader, Scott (Devon Sawa), finds Roberta playing basketball alone and asks her why she likes to fight so much. Of them all, Roberta is the one who most refutes her femininity - justified by the film because she grew up in a house with only men, after the early death of her mother in a car accident. At the end of the conversation, the two kiss. It's an ironic moment in which the very one who complained the most about her body's development (even going so far as to tape her breasts so they stopped growing) is the first of her friends to kiss a boy. Even though it is stereotypical, it is a feeling that some people can identify with, representing the phase of sexual discovery. Scott and Roberta begin to share this secret and the fights ease, but the girl's life does not automatically revolve around the opposite sex.
In a wise choice of script, they don't find themselves alone again, nor do they have a forced romance: it was just a sign that they were entering that phase. In fact, sexuality is a fine line on which the script for "Now and Then" balances itself. At the same time, it also features Teeny, a girl with absent parents who practically behaves like an adult and reads relationship tips in Cosmopolitan, and Chrissy, a "puritan" who, because of her mother's explanation, thinks that the woman has a "flower" that will be "watered" by man. Like it or not, the age group from 12 years old is where all these doubts can arise, so the presence of the topic in itself is natural. It is worth pointing out that, as it is a film from the mid-1990s and takes place in the 80s, some issues that today the public already raises were not yet discussed so widely by the productions - many subjects were taboo and, if portrayed, were only in a veiled way. All the protagonists are white and straight, for example. The following year, actress Rosie O'Donnell would come out as a lesbian to the media, which would perhaps make a difference in the script if it were in the present day.
Even though it is a coming-of-age film - which features narratives about maturation and the transition of characters from youth to adulthood -, "Now and Then" does not end at the end of summer, no matter how valuable lessons have been learned by the group. He returns to the "present" (in this case, 1995), with the adult protagonists marked by the events of two decades ago and with much still unsaid. Back in the treehouse, Samantha goes from just narrating the events of the past to vocalizing her insecurities to her friends live. Even though she is a renowned writer and has a "made" life, full of achievements, her personal life is not going well and many questions raised that summer still haunt her mind. She realizes that she was afraid to return to Shelby because of the memories, but that she ended up distancing herself from the very thing that gave her strength: her best friends. Chrissy, Roberta and Teeny (although she also shares the concept of a successful life in the metropolis) welcome Sam's anguish with open arms, in a mix of narrative melodrama and genuine feminine understanding. The truth is that the fact that they are very different from each other is not an obstacle, after all, they already knew that since they became friends. The union between them did not happen because of how much they had in common, but precisely because of the differences that ended up complementing each other.
The temporal advancement also yields some interesting parallels. One of Samantha's narrative arcs (when young) is her discomfort with her parents' separation: her father's abandonment, her mother getting back together, and her grandmother who thinks her granddaughter will be permanently affected by the breakup. In one of the last conversations, she has with Teeny, she comments that in 10 years divorces would be more common, which Sam doubts. At the reunion, before Teeny even appears, the other three comment on how they've lost count of how many marriages the blonde has had. When she finally appears, she confirms that there were "only three", as the first union had, in fact, been annulled. This is one of the many generational comments that the production makes through humor, not so shallow when better observed. Finally, Chrissy gives birth to a girl, which carries yet another beautiful generational symbolism after everything the film displays, as a hope that from now on women would have even more opportunities, both on a broader social level and in personal relationships between mothers and daughters. It's like a chance to break the cycle of patterns after sharing difficult experiences and talking about your feelings about everything.
"Now and Then" is strongly reminiscent of "Stand by Me", not only in the way the young protagonists are fascinated by an unsolved murder, but also in how it is based on a crucial period of transition in the characters' lives. In this case, the girls discover that the world beyond their small town can offer all kinds of unpleasant surprises. Worse still, even in their own hometown, death, divorce, and other disruptions undermine their previously unshakable sense of security. This doesn't mean, of course, that they can't enjoy harmless activities like séances, sports, and hesitant glances at boys. But at the end of summer, wise Samantha has good reason to wonder if she and her friends will ever be so happy again. "Now and Then" is much more adept at portraying the end of childhood than at presenting adult relationships. The modern-day prologue and epilogue end up feeling more like gimmicks (or desperate infusions of stardom) than integral parts of the narrative. The adults try hard, but they have only caricatures, not flesh-and-blood characters, to play.
"Now and Then" is a very touching, sometimes funny, and, as mentioned before, totally relatable film. All of the young actresses do a great job and help create an engaging story. As for the older cast, none of them are bad, but this whole part seems superfluous and extremely rushed and could have easily been cut entirely. This would not have taken anything away from the context of the film. The only real purpose of these sections is to show that even though two of the girls went their separate ways in life, all four of them remained friends and kept the promise they made as children to always be there for each other when they were in need... There are moments in between of the film that the viewer even forgets about the adult cast after a quick introduction. It also seems like this section is included to have Samantha, played by Demi Moore, narrate the entire film as an adult, which could have easily been resolved with a quick explanation about how she was just reflecting on that most important summer of their lives. Still, despite some instances of cliché, this is an enjoyable film and the perfect choice for any of the summer months.
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