Review: Teenage love carries into afterlife in syrupy 'Endless'

The sappy supernatural teenage romance "Endless" can't end soon enough. 

Alexandra Shipp (Storm in the latest round of "X-Men" movies) and Nicholas Hamilton ("It" and its sequel) are stranded in this shmaltz about the afterlife, letting go, and moving on. If it was only a teenage spin on "Ghost" it might be fine, but "Endless" gets distracted with frivolous side plots and is weighed down with melodrama. Just end it already.   

Shipp is Riley, a California high school senior who is headed off to law school at Georgetown in the fall. Hamilton is Chris, her boyfriend, who is worried that her going off to school will put an end to their relationship. 

On the way home from a party one night, they get in a car accident and Chris is killed. Except he doesn't know he's dead, and he navigates the hereafter along with the help of a spirit guide, Jordan (DeRon Horton).

Jordan teaches him how to teleport and leap between buildings, which is cool and all, but Chris has found a way to communicate with Riley from beyond. And while none of her friends believe her, Riley, too, can still feel Chris' presence. Cue "Unchained Melody."  

Oops, wrong movie. Director Scott Speer, who navigated the waters of doomed teenage romance more effectively in 2018's "Midnight Sun," can't raise "Endless" above its cable movie feel. 

The script gets sidelined with unnecessary plot elements, including a detective investigating the car accident, that only take away from the main love story, and there's too much time spent underlining the rules of what's possible between the living and the dead. In trying to explain the unexplainable, "Endless" hits a dead end. 

'Endless'

GRADE: C-

Not rated: Teenage drinking, frightening situations

Running time: 94 minutes

agraham@detroitnews.com

@grahamorama