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Movie poster for To Love Is To Grow (2023)

To Love Is To Grow

2023
1h 38m
Spanish
Search on Netflix

Overview

The paths of a couple who'd dated for more than a decade diverge when Juan decides he wants to raise a family and Elizabeth focuses on her career.

Cast

9 people

Reviews

4 min read

Love’s Labor Lost

I’ve seen this movie before. Not To Love Is To Grow specifically—though I’ve now seen that too—but the story it’s trying to tell. The couple at the crossroads, the decade of shared history suddenly rendered fragile by a single, irreconcilable difference.

It’s a premise that should feel urgent, even devastating. Instead, To Love Is To Grow plays like a rough draft of something that might have been moving, had it not been so determined to undercut itself at every turn.

The film opens with Juan Felipe (Diego Camargo), a 40-year-old man who has spent the last twelve years in a relationship with Elizabeth (Jessica Cediel), a model whose career is finally taking off. Juan, unemployed and adrift, decides he’s ready to start a family. Elizabeth, understandably, isn’t.

What follows should be a negotiation—of love, of compromise, of the messy reality of growing together or apart. Instead, the film treats their conflict like a problem to be solved with a single, magical epiphany, delivered via a series of baffling narrative choices.

A couple sits on opposite ends of a couch, the space between them charged with unspoken tension

The first act sets up a promising dynamic. Juan is a man-child, all petulant sighs and half-finished sentences, while Elizabeth moves through their shared apartment with the weary efficiency of someone who’s already mentally checked out. Their arguments are sharp, specific—she resents his lack of ambition, he resents her for not wanting what he wants.

For a brief moment, it feels like the film might actually sit with the discomfort of their impasse. Then the screenplay remembers it’s a comedy, and suddenly we’re treated to a subplot about a pregnancy scare that vanishes as quickly as it arrives. (Common Sense Media’s Barbara Shulgasser wasn’t wrong when she noted that the story “barely hangs together,” possibly because it’s trying to stretch a minor subplot into a full feature.)

Buzz & Rumors

Public reports

Behind the Scenes of To Love Is To Grow: A Decade-Long Love Story on Screen

Harold Trompetero’s To Love Is To Grow (2023) dives into the messy, relatable reality of a couple at a crossroads after more than 10 years together. The film follows Juan and Elizabeth, played by Diego Camargo and Jessica Cediel, latestnetflix.com argues, as their relationship fractures over a fundamental difference: Juan’s desire to start a family clashes with Elizabeth’s career ambitions. But what’s the story behind the story? Here’s what we know—and what’s still under wraps.


A Director’s Signature Style

Harold Trompetero, the Colombian filmmaker behind To Love Is To Grow, is no stranger to commercial cinema. With 25 films under his belt and a background in social communication, Trompetero has built a reputation for stories that blend emotional depth with accessible storytelling. While the evidence doesn’t reveal his specific inspiration for this project, his filmography suggests a focus on contemporary relationships and societal pressures—making To Love Is To Grow a natural fit for his portfolio.

The film’s premise—a couple navigating diverging life goals—resonates with audiences familiar with Trompetero’s knack for grounding drama in real-life dilemmas. However, details about the film’s development, such as script origins or pre-production challenges, remain scarce in the available snippets.


Casting Choices: Familiar Faces in Familiar Roles

Diego Camargo and Jessica Cediel lead the cast as Juan and Elizabeth, the couple at the heart of the film. Camargo, known for his work in Colombian television and film, brings a grounded intensity to roles that often explore masculinity and vulnerability. Cediel, a former beauty queen turned actress and TV host, has built a career balancing glamour with dramatic roles, though To Love Is To Grow appears to be one of her more serious projects.

Supporting the leads is a mix of seasoned and rising Colombian talent:

  • Julián Caicedo, Judith Pérez Segura, and Norma Nivia round out the ensemble, though their specific roles in the film aren’t detailed in the snippets. - José Daniel Cristancho, Walter Luengas, Carlos Humberto Gutiérrez, and Carlos Hurtado complete the cast, but their contributions to the story remain unclear without deeper evidence.

The lack of interviews or behind-the-scenes commentary from the cast leaves fans guessing about their experiences filming the emotionally charged scenes. Were there improvisations? Did the chemistry between Camargo and Cediel mirror their characters’ decade-long bond? For now, these questions go unanswered.


Reception and Rumors: What’s the Verdict?

To Love Is To Grow has yet to generate a wave of critical buzz or audience chatter, at least based on the available evidence. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film, but the snippets don’t include scores or reviews from critics or viewers. This silence could mean the movie is flying under the radar—or it might signal a lack of widespread distribution or marketing push.

Without reviews or box office data, it’s hard to gauge the film’s impact. Rumors about its reception are nonexistent in the snippets, leaving fans to wonder: Did Trompetero’s latest strike a chord with audiences, or did it get lost in the shuffle of 2023’s crowded release calendar?


The Bottom Line: A Story Worth Telling, But Details Are Thin

To Love Is To Grow tackles a universal theme—love, compromise, and the fear of growing apart—but the behind-the-scenes story is frustratingly light on specifics. Trompetero’s direction and the cast’s performances could make this a standout in Colombian cinema, yet the lack of interviews, reviews, or production anecdotes leaves much to the imagination.

For now, the film’s legacy hinges on its premise: a couple forced to confront whether love is enough when life pulls them in different directions. If you’re a fan of relationship dramas, it’s worth a watch—but don’t expect a flood of behind-the-scenes gossip to accompany it.

Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.

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