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LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT (2023)
Director: Vanessa Caswell Cast: Haley Lu Richardson, Ben Hardy, Jameela Jamil, Rob Delaney, Dexter Fletcher, Sally Phillips, Tom Taylor, Katrina Nare MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:30 Release Date: 9/15/23 (Netflix) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 14, 2023 Love at First Sight is technically a romantic comedy, in that it revolves around a potential couple, as well as the complications of them actually becoming one, and ends in the way you'd expect from such a broad, genre-based description of the film. Here, though, is a fine reminder that one shouldn't judge a movie simply on its genre and that story formula doesn't have to be routine. Sure, the plot features plenty of missed opportunities and close call as it makes its way toward that finale, but every single one of them feels earned, because these characters are so engaging, realistic, relatable, and played with such conviction and ease by the two leads. They're Haley Lu Richardson, one of the emerging talents of her young generation of actors, and Ben Hardy, who has appeared in various movies recently but shows a lot of promise with his first leading role. Richardson plays Hadley, a perennially late 20-year-old college student, introduced to us with some quick information, such as her fears of mayonnaise and tight spaces. She's also scared of change, apparently, although she didn't realize how much until her parents' divorce about a year and a half before the start of the story. Her father Andrew (Rob Delaney) took a prestigious teaching job at Oxford University, leaving behind his daughter and wife, and since then, the couple split, while dad found love with another woman (played by Katrina Nare). They're about to be married, so Hadley has a flight to catch from New York City to London, where she'll be a bridesmaid and meet her father's new romantic partner for the very first time in the process. It's little wonder she's late to airport and misses her flight by four minutes. We'll get to Hardy's Oliver in a bit, because it's important to note the clever and not-too-cutesy hook of Katie Lovejoy's screenplay, an adaptation of Jennifer E. Smith's novel The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Yes, it's about Hadley and Oliver meeting by chance, missing a connection, and spending the rest of the story trying to reconnect, despite and because of all the things going on in their lives at the moment. The film makes it all about fate or destiny or, as Hardy's numbers-happy character might see it, the statistics of coincidence. That entire conceit, though, is essentially personified in Jameela Jamil, our helpful and seemingly omnipresent narrator, who shows up as a flight attendant, a customs agent, a bartender, and a series of other random strangers. Along the way, the narrator explains who these two are, what they're thinking, how their past experiences and current thinking define their choices, and how those decisions will figure into some potential future. It's cheesy in theory, to be sure, but director Vanessa Caswill ensures that the gimmick is as sincere and thoughtful as the portrayal of the characters is. As for Oliver, he's 22 and also a college student, studying statistics and very much afraid of surprise—so much so that he uses numbers and math to make as much sense out of life as he can. The young man is scheduled to be on the flight that Hadley books after missing her planned one. The two meet over a charging cable in the airport terminal, lock eyes, and have an instant connection. It's not quite love, of course, because how could it be? That's one of the early signs of the film's maturity and insight about matters like love and destiny. Yes, there's a very good change something will come of this connection, as long as circumstances work out for them, but the screenplay does the work of letting us get to know the characters as they get to know each other—first, during a chat over a pre-flight dinner and, then, over the course of the flight, since a seatbelt malfunction and the narrator's flight attendant incarnation puts Oliver in the seat next to Hadley. These two talk about and bond over matters both trivial and significant, even if Oliver isn't exactly honest about the reason he's flying back home to London, and the chemistry between Richardson and Hardy is palpable enough to fill in the obvious gaps of this initial connection, such as the fact that each doesn't know the other's last name. Does that really matter when it comes to a connection such as this? Well, it does when the two are separated and left unable to make contact, also by chance, but can't stop thinking about each other. The rest of the story has one or the other rushing around London, between the wedding Hadley has to attend in one part of the city and the event Oliver dreads to attend in another, but that doesn't end up turning the characters into pawns of happenstance and plot contrivances. They're still the characters they are, with Hadley dealing with the tricky relationship with her father, making her a bit cynical about the prospect of real love at a key moment, and Oliver caught up in the difficult emotions of an oxymoronic event involving his own family. There's something intrinsically smart and optimistic about this story, which revolves around two characters who are apart for a good chunk of time. It makes Love at First Sight less about the obvious question—of whether or not they'll be together by the end—and more about whether or not each one will emotionally allow themselves to that possibility. The characters are rich enough for that question to matter and likeable enough for us to hope it's the case. What else could one want from a romantic comedy? Copyright © 2023 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for brief strong language and some suggestive references)
