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LOVE AGAIN
Director: Jim Strouse Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Céline Dion, Sofia Barclay, Russell Tovey, Lydia West, Steve Oram, Omid Djalili, Nick Jonas MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:44 Release Date: 5/5/23 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 5, 2023 So many things go wrong with Love Again, almost immediately from the start, that it's quite the struggle to figure out if anything actually goes right within this wholly predictable and occasionally creepy attempt at a romantic story. There's at least a little bit of chemistry between the two leads, and while that would usually be something, it's beside the point in this movie. The setup of the central relationship is simply too contrived and discomforting to care if the actors seem as if they're having fun playing at falling in love. The premise here, from a novel by Sofie Cramer (which previously was adapted into a German movie that didn't receive a release in the United States), is gimmicky—and just kind of icky—to the core. It's fairly simple, in that it's basically a case of misdialing the phone leading to romance, but it's complicated by so much unfortunate baggage that it takes a lot longer to explain. It begins with Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), a writer and illustrator of children's books, who's completely head-over-heels in love with John (Arinzé Kene). In a scene that almost feels as if it was written and filmed on the fly at some point during post-production because the filmmakers realized a key moment was missing, writer/director Jim Strouse essentially tries to communicate the entire course of a romantic-comedy relationship in less than five minutes. Mira and John, who have been dating for an uncertain amount of time at this point, meet in a pseudo-meet-cute scenario of him texting her about seeing "the One" at a café, and obviously, it's her. They're all smiles and lovey-dovey dialogue, including a forced and loaded line about how much Mira likes the way John smells. This is an odd way to greet your romantic partner of an indeterminate amount of time in public, but it is a very convenient way to signal Mira's grief when she starts smelling John's shirt and driving around in his truck because it still smells like him two years after he dies. Yes, no sooner do we meet John than he is out of the picture, in an off-camera death that's too much of a coincidental tragedy and dependent upon Copra Jonas' reaction to the apparently horrific scene to be called anything more generous than a grave error in narrative judgment. Two years later, Mira is living with her parents but returns to the New York City apartment she shares with her sister Suzy (Sofia Barclay), who reminds us it has been two years since John's death because the first act appears to have been edited to scraps, after a quick montage of phone calls. The short of what's becoming way too long a summary is that Mira decides to start texting her dead boyfriend's phone number with expressions of grief and updates about her life. The number now, though, belongs to the new work cellphone of Rob (Sam Heughan), the music critic for a local newspaper. He finds these heartfelt messages of pain and mourning, not to be sad and worth sending a polite reply that this poor stranger has the wrong number, but as a cue from the universe. Rob thinks that maybe this stranger is worth stalking to see if, presumably, she might be dating material. This isn't the premise of some cutesy romantic comedy. It's the behavior of someone more in line with a sociopath. Apart from some generic co-workers who joke about Rob's thinking and actions, though, the movie treats this as something fairly rational for a guy who has been dumped to convince a grieving woman that love is possible again. Strouse even gets Céline Dion—yes, really—in on the apologetics for the character, because he's meant to interview the singer, playing herself, but instead pours his creepy little heart out to her about the texts and his plan (He eventually enlists Dion, who agrees without a second thought, to become part of his scheme). Dion comes across as charming and sincere at least—never more so than when she says that Rob has "the presence of used underwear." It's a funny line, mainly because we its description is apt for more than just the character. The rest of this is more of Rob stalking and lying and not acting at all like a reasonable, thinking, and feeling human being in the slightest. It's not romantic at all, to say the least, but Love Again believes it is, while eventually chiding Mira for not recognizing it. This is a shockingly oblivious and embarrassing movie. Copyright © 2023 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for some sexual material and some strong language)
