For the record, it's English. I was born in Tilbury, Essex, made temporarily 
American citizen?"
Considering this is the teenage version of boy-meet-girl, the title can be taken three ways: it can refer to the first time they meet, the first time they fall in love, or the first time they have sex. Either way, as pleasant as the two characters in question may be, the film feels nothing more than run of the mill and hardly the first time that any of us have seen something like this.
Dave (Dylan O’Brien) is a likable high-school senior. Aubrey (Britt Robertson) is a junior from a different school. One evening they meet in the alley behind the house of a high-school rave. They talk, or rather, stammer their way through a lengthy conversation, each giving little insights to their thoughts and feelings. She: “I’ve never been more content than when I’m alone.” He: “I’ve never met a girl like you before.”
There will always be a market for a teenage love story, but in order for the story to be of interest something interesting has to occur, and in The First Time nothing much of note happens. At the fifty-five minute point there’s a deadly car crash involving some characters we met earlier. We don’t see the crash, just the aftermath, and it’s all shot from the point of view of the two leads who happen to be passing the accident in their car. This single moment changes the tone momentarily and you feel as though the film is about to follow something that has weight to it, but no. Once the teenage lovers pass, the scene is over and never referred to again.
The two leads make pleasant enough company, and it’s obvious from the first time they meet they’re going to be together, but it’s not nearly enough to ground a feature length film. Writer/director Jon Kasdan has centered everything on the two teenagers, presumably with the intention of making the whole affair character-driven instead of plot-driven, but the characters, as presented here, simply aren’t enough.
The film has an attractive look to it; colors are surprisingly vibrant and everything looks well framed, but it’s this overall glossy appearance that actually works against it. The film might have benefited from a slightly rough-around-the-edges form giving it a dose of reality. But reality isn’t something The First Time appears to be going for, underlined by the mannered performances of the two leads.
O’Brien and Robertson are capable teenage performers, but their delivery never rings true. They’re acting. O’Brien never snaps out of his apologetic/awkward mode and Robertson never completes a sentence without stammering, correcting herself or pulling quirky facial expressions. They’re both working hard at their craft – and I’m quite sure their approach would work on stage and appear theatrically natural – but on film it’s anything but real. With the absence of fresh insight or frankly anything of substance, The First Time feels like a big screen adaptation of a short, two-person, one-act play expanded to a full length film but adding nothing new or special in the process.
And do teenagers today really say things like, “I dig you so much, so much it freaks me out,” instead of how much they love each other? I’m thinking that’s more the work of an older writer imagining what two teens would say. At least, let’s hope so.
