Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between Parent Guide

Unsettled by her parents’ divorce and tired of frequent moves, Clare has a clear plan for her future. She’s going to excel at school, go to an Ivy League university, attend law school, and “fight for people who need protecting.” Falling in love doesn’t fit into her careful life plan – until she meets Aidan. Fearful of romantic entanglements, Claire proposes a deal: they can pursue a relationship, but they promise to break up before leaving for university. They spend a magical senior year together – shown in montages of unbelievably charming dates – and now the time has come. Clare is leaving for Dartmouth in the morning, and Aidan has planned their last date.

Clare has always been convinced that she can make a clean break with no heartache on either side. Aidan, on the other hand, is certain that an “epic” evening will be enough to convince Clare to acknowledge that they belong together. As evening stretches into night, they revisit the sites of their most memorable dates, and look more closely at the joys and challenges of their relationship.

As teen romance movies go, Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between manages to be comparatively low on sex and high on long-term perspective. As for sexual content, it’s primarily limited to kissing (some on Clare’s bed) and a scene of two girls kissing. There is some background teen drinking at parties and under a dozen swear words. The TV-14 rating shouldn’t be a deterrent: this movie comes in very comfortably at the low end of the PG-13 category.

As for long term thinking, it’s refreshing to see a teen movie where the leads are focused on their futures. Clare, in particular, is painstakingly analytical about what she wants in the future and where she expects her relationship with Aidan to fit. Instead of just reacting emotionally (or hormonally) she thinks things through, trying to figure out if she’s “throwing away the best thing that ever happened to me…or just hanging in with Aidan because he’s safe and easy.” While Clare sometimes overthinks things or runs from her feelings, it’s great to have that kind of careful self-assessment on a movie geared at teens.

Adolescent fans of romantic dramas will get their fill of sweet, melancholy love scenes here. Aidan’s flair for big gestures will have girls swooning (although I keep wondering how he can afford them all). Adults may find the plot less attention-grabbing, but there’s enough charm coming from the cast and the Instagram-worthy dates to make this a reasonably pleasant way for genre fans to pass a carb-laden evening.