The Panther Newspaper: '6 Years' of predictability

When a film opens with a black screen and sex noises in the background, it’s hard not to be intrigued. The scene comes to life, and our first glimpse of the main characters are of them making love. The audience is then thrown into a montage of lovable, but also laughable, scenes that showcase the couple’s cliché relationship.

“6 Years” was released Sept. 8. for instant viewing on Netflix. The film follows a young couple, Melanie (Taissa Farmiga) and Dan (Ben Rosenfield), whose six year relationship is on the brink of failure as the stress of entering adulthood puts pressure on them to figure out their future together.

Although “6 Years” is extremely predictable, this film was still fun to watch as I tensed up in anticipation for every obvious plot twist to manifest itself. I was constantly thinking about how the characters should have been mature enough to understand their actions were wrong, and was disappointed when they couldn’t seem to learn from their mistakes.

By the end of the film, I realized that the moral of this story is that life has its challenges, but you either have to work through them or simply accept them and move on. Another valuable lesson was about being aware that your actions do affect the other people in your life, whether you intend for them to or not.

I also think this film shows that dependency brings out the dark side of any relationship, romantic or otherwise. The only person you can truly ever rely on is yourself.

There were a few cringe-worthy parts of the film in regard to the plot and the acting, but overall I thought it was shot beautifully. The cinematography made me feel like I was watching the couple’s story unfold through one of their friend’s eyes, which established a strong connection between me and both Melanie and Dan.

I did think the characters were unrealistically immature, especially for college-aged students, but eventually realized this may have been a device to resonate with an even larger audience which could include high school students as well.

“6 Years” isn’t an award-winning film, but the enlightening life lessons that it aims to express made it worth watching.

3/5 Panther paws.

Photo courtesy Duplass Brothers Productions.