A One Mann’s Movies review of “Love Again” (2023).
I’m late to the game on this rom-com, but I went in with the words of my “Flickering Dreams” podcast colleague Andy Godfrey ringing in my ears. He had declared it the “worst film of the year so far” and had an entertaining rant about it! (Watch it here … it’s entertaining!)
While I agree the film is pretty poor, I don’t think it’s QUITE that bad. (I think “Marlowe” tops it – or rather bottoms it – for me still). But I can agree with most of the points that Andy made.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Life seems perfect for the loved-up Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and John (Arinzé Kene). But then John is killed in a car accident and Mira’s world falls apart. Now two years later, the still struggling Mira tries texting her thoughts and emotions to John’s old mobile phone, unaware that the number has now been reassigned to journalist Rob Burns (Sam Heughan). Heughan is doing an article on the tour of Céline Dion, who provides Rob with advice on love!
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC: “Infrequent strong language, moderate sex references”).
Talent:
Starring: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Céline Dion, Sofia Barclay, Russell Tovey, Lydia West, Celia Imrie, Omid Djalili, Nick Jonas, Steve Oram.
Directed by: Jim Strouse.
Written by: Jim Strouse (based on the book “Text For You” by Sofie Cramer).
Twitter Handle: #loveagainmovie.
“Love” – a cringe line from Céline Dion. I’m sure I felt bile rise. (Source: Sony Pictures Entertainment.)
“Love Again” Review:
Positives:
- There is a nice easy chemistry between Chopra Jonas and Heughan that’s quite sweet (if some would say “sickly”!)
- The two performances I enjoyed the most were Sofia Barclay as Mira’s vivacious sister Suzy (great fun and highly watchable) and Lydia West as Rob’s office colleague Lisa (a nice turn in comic expressions).
Negatives:
- The plot is so utterly predictable you can see where it’s going to go from the get-go (albeit not actually in exactly the same way as I would have done it… see the “Spoiler” section below the trailer).
- It’s billed as a Rom-com but it singularly fails to meet the ‘6-laughs-test’ for a comedy. I’m afraid I didn’t properly laugh once and only smiled a few times.
- Céline Dion is playing herself. And she IS a great singer. But – oh, man oh man – she is also a terrible actor! And she only has to play herself! There are scenes in here (particularly the one-on-ones with Sam Heughan) that are utterly cringe-inducing.
- There are some crazy aspects of the plot. At one point Dion instructs someone to design the tour poster…. while they are rehearsing the first concert of the tour! Bonkers!
- Both Russell Tovey and Celia Imrie are miscast by being forced to do unnatural US accents. This is probably because (with both Heughan and Steve Oram – as his boss – ‘being British’ in the film, it was very UK heavy).
Monkeys?
There is a fun set of videos of the cast goofing about to Céline Dion singing “All Coming Back to Me Now” at the start of the credits. Heughan is wearing a kilt in the Scottish Highlands and wearing an “I Love Céline” T-shirt! But as well as that, and well into the credits, there is a monkey featuring Sam Heughan and Céline Dion). The five other people in the cinema had all left before this came on! There’s nothing at the end of the credits.
Summary Thoughts on “Love Again”
The writer/director here is Jim Strouse, none of who’s previous films have crossed my conciousness before. And I think this is one for die-hard Céline fans only. Even then, you might be hard pushed to really love this one (other that possibly in a “so bad it’s good” way).
[fblike]
Trailer for “Love Again”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQDXtD2HJAs .
Spoiler Section:
Don’t read past this point if you’ve not seen the movie.
…
…
…
NO, SERIOUSLY!
…
…
…
I thought there was a really nice way for Mira to find out what was going on, and that was for Rob to get mixed up between his two phones and to text Mira from the “wrong one”. I was so waiting for this to happen. Yes, it would have been predictable, but it would have been ‘good predictable’. It would have been ‘dramatic predictable’.
Instead – and I have NO rational explanation for what is going on here – Mira accidently moves his computer mouse and the display of all of Rob’s text messages from the work phone are magically displayed on the screen. Like, WTF?
