The Second Chance Cinema by Thea Weiss (book review)
Relationships are difficult things to navigate. So often you meet couples that declare that there are no secrets between them and that they always tell each other everything. They may think so, but is it true? If it is from the time the relationship began, but what about the past? There will be things that are embarrassing that they may not want to share. There may be a fear that the share-all attitude may destroy what they are trying to build. It is possible that there are things that should be left in the past. This is a dilemma that the protagonists of ‘The Second Chance Cinema’ are facing.
Ellie and Drake meet in Finn’s Bar. How they both happen to be there is explained near the end of the book. Ellie is a writer with a special talent. She seeks out places that have great potential but are in danger of folding because insufficient people know where they are or what they can offer. By writing about them, their fortune’s turn around. Drake works in construction. He starts chatting to her and it is the start of their romance.
The novel cuts to two and a half years later when Ellie and Drake are planning their wedding. On a Saturday evening walk, they discover a run-down alley. At the end of it is a retro cinema with a midnight showing of a film called ‘Your Story’. They are the only customers and discover that what it is showing them are scenes from their childhood. This cinema is only open on a Saturday at midnight and only for them. At any other time, it is a derelict building.
Over the next few weeks, the couple is shown events that are turning points in their lives. They have ten tickets for ten visits. The shows are memories, some of which are painful and about things they haven’t told their partner and probably never intended to. They also begin to recognise personal traits and realise the root cause of them.
Memories are things that can become fuzzy and distorted by time but this revisiting brings back clarity. The show reminds Ellie what exactly happened on the night her brother died and she has never properly grieved for him. It may go part way to explain why she has never been able to make a commitment. In the past, she has had many boyfriends, often one-night stands and has run away, even to the extent of climbing out of the bathroom window. She has been with Drake longer than with anyone else but is scared that the revelations of these shows will make him decide he doesn’t want to marry her after all.
Drake has to confront his inability to take risks. He has recapitulated his relationship with an earlier girlfriend on his romance with Ellie, visiting the same restaurants he took Miranda to, sticking to the same activities and music choices. He has stayed in the same job, even though he has said that he always wanted to branch out into his own business.
The novel can best be described as cosy and nothing particularly dramatic happens. By having a second chance to revisit their respective pasts, they are allowed an insight into the influences that have shaped them. But it is the events going on in the present that dictate the direction their lives will go. For the reader, it raises the question as to whether total transparency is the course or to live with the anxiety that the past will catch up with them.
As a codicil, there is a suggestion that the magical theatre is still out there for couples that need it.
Pauline Morgan
February 2026
(pub: Atria Books/HarperCollins, New York, 2025. 306 page hardback. Price: $29.00 (US), $39.00 (CAN). ISBN: 978-1-6682-0818-2. There’s now a UK paperback edition at £ 9.99 (UK))
check out website: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-second-chance-cinema-thea-weiss?variant=55509554725243