Kit Connor and Joe Locke in Heartstopper Forever. Photograph: Netflix View image in fullscreen Kit Connor and Joe Locke in Heartstopper Forever. Photograph: Netflix Film Review Heartstopper Forever review – sanitized sex scenes won’t let the Netflix lovebirds grow up The film-length finale to the teen LGBTQ+ show has poignant moments but feels like fan service by numbers
Prefer the Guardian on Google I f it were up to Kit Connor , Heartstopper would have ended quite differently. “If I’d had my way, I would have had Nick and Charlie cheating on each other and doing all those stupid things,” he recently told the Guardian. “Because young people do that and don’t necessarily need to be villainized for it.”
Read more Midway through Heartstopper Forever , the film-length finale of Netflix’s series, I started to see his point. The central star-crossed lovebirds of Alice Oceman’s megahit are now 18 and 17, and like most teenagers they have sex, get drunk and fight with their annoying siblings. Unlike most people their age, they don’t vape, don’t use sex apps and they definitely don’t cheat.
If you know anything about Heartstopper, the YA sensation adapted from Alice Oseman ’s blockbuster graphic novels, this won’t be a surprise. Criticising Heartstopper for being too wholesome is like complaining that your hot chocolate is too rich – cozy indulgence is exactly the point of this heartwarming show. And while a few bumps in the road are in store for its characters in Heartstopper Forever, the film is careful to reassure us that it gets better, even as its version of queer teen life begins to feel more and more like make-believe.
It’s the last year they will spend together at the fictional Truham grammar school, and Nick (Connor) and Charlie ( Joe Locke ) are a rock solid duo, rubber-stamped as couple goals. While previous Heartstopper seasons have been loosely themed around teenage milestones – whether the pair would get together, say “I love you” or have sex – Heartstopper Forever’s premise is more nebulous, asking whether teen relationships can really survive into adulthood.
No spoilers here – but if you know anything about the franchise, you’ll probably be able to predict whether or not Nick and Charlie make it in the end. But Heartstopper Forever doesn’t quite know how to get there. The film covers a year in the couple’s life over two hours and four parts (Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer plus an epilogue). With little to tie the sections together, it often feels like a slapdash game of Issues Bingo. Nick is a borderline alcoholic crippled with anxiety at the start of the film, but is somehow able to overcome his demons by working at an animal rescue. Charlie’s eating disorder from season three rears its head again but is seemingly healed by the sight of Derek Jacobi , who cameos as half of a sweet elderly gay couple. Friends Tao and Elle’s relationship is on the skids but the film hardly bothers to explain why, an odd oversight for characters who were previously afforded nearly as much screentime as the show’s leads.
The film often feels more concerned with creating a love letter to the franchise itself rather than taking the characters anywhere new. A scene of Nick and Charlie canoodling on a wintry day is a retread of an earlier moment where the couple make snow angels, while the magic of revisiting where they had their first kiss is dampened by one of many bludgeoningly obvious flashbacks. It’s as if the film-makers were worried tha…