6.4 stars.
There are a couple good scenes having to do with the romance between the supporting cast. They have the chemistry that our leads could learn a lesson from.
Let's see, we have a chef, a real estate developer, a bookstore owner, bookstore owner's assistant, a parent, the leads parted ways when they went to college, he stayed in the big city, she stayed at home and bought the bookstore, he now works for the big real estate developer and is part of the process of buying out the whole block to replace it with condos and tear down the bookstore and historical buildings. Did I miss anything? "The Story of Us" is just way too cookie cutter to ignore. There is absolutely nothing original in this movie. Even the dialogue is the same, with an absence of extraordinary or unique. The leads are too civil with each other, there is no indication of any previous attraction between them, no flare at all. High school sweethearts, I don't buy it. There is an interrupted kiss which did not belong in the first place, so yay for the interruption.
I'm starting to realize how difficult it must be to produce a really good film. "The Story of Us" could have been great, it's not easy to figure out what exactly makes for the magic in a story. I'm thinking it's in the editing, to be honest. Get the music just perfect with the pacing and change a few lines, intonations and expressions maybe? Good luck.
It's just a copycat film of a dozen other copycat films which copied something way back probably 20 years ago that is rarely aired anymore. At least they were able to produce a near average film with no major mistakes.
