Heartstopper Forever review – sanitized sex scenes won’t let the Netflix lovebirds grow up

7 hours ago 10

If 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.”

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 that viewers had second-screened it all along, betraying an odd lack of faith in the show’s famously devoted fanbase.

Neither does Heartstopper Forever seem to trust that its viewers keep up to date with current affairs, with earnest PSAs about the state of LGBTQ+ rights. “The government is taking away my rights and everything we fought for,” says Elle, the couple’s trans friend. “If I was a few years younger I wouldn’t even have been able to take hormone blockers legally.” There’s a grim truth to her message, but it’s odd that she has never mentioned this aspect of her gender-affirming journey before – almost as if the writers were more interested in making sure they were on the right side of current political conversations than giving new depth to their character’s story.

The wider Heartstopper gang became increasingly important to the show as its seasons progressed, to the extent that a whole season finale was dedicated to non-binary classmate Darcy’s issues with her family. (Darcy’s most notable development in Heartstopper Forever is a new haircut.) Thank God for the well-timed one-liners of the delightfully narcissistic Rhea (Imogen Heaney), who announces that she is a lesbian as if she just won the clout Olympics, as well as Charlie’s sister, Tori, whose speech about her asexual relationship is one of the most touching scenes in the film. “Maybe our together isn’t the same as your together, or the normal sort of together,” she says. “But it’s ours, and we’re happy with it.”

It’s one of the rare moments in Heartstopper Forever that doesn’t feel overly workshopped. While it is delightful to discover that both Nick and Charlie are vers kings, the sex scenes are strangely coy (an especially odd choice given that both actors are 22). There’s nary a flash of buttocks, no nasty gunk to clean up afterwards – and certainly none of the fumbling awkwardness that viewers may remember of their own teenage sexual experiences. In one evening-set scene, they impulsively pull the car over for a bit of outdoor fun – Charlie sticks his hands down Nick’s jeans before an aerial shot shows there’s not a soul within 500ft, as if the film-makers are holding up a big sign reading: no late-night dog walkers were traumatized by this blowjob.

Heartstopper’s magic rests in its rosiness, but part of Nick and Charlie’s glow comes from the extended cast that Heartstopper Forever mainly ignores. The film isn’t without its aww-inspiring moments, but the odd pacing, relentless Easter eggs and montages often leave it feeling like its own fan cam edit as it attempts to put the neatest possible bow on the couple’s puppy love. Nick and Charlie are supposed to be all grown up, but Heartstopper Forever treats them with kid gloves.