Love Again

When I saw the trailer for Love Again I knew it was going to be a movie that made me cry. I also knew that I would see anything with Priyanka in it so I was pretty excited to see it. Then we never got around to seeing it in theaters. And enter Netflix to save the day so we are finally watching Love Again and here is my formal review.

I’m not sure starting with the death of her man was the best way to open this. I think it would have been more impactful if we had never met him. Because having him in a single scene really doesn’t give the audience time to connect with him, or with them as a couple. And there is something so much more relatable and heartbreaking as a woman who can’t move on. Her grieving would be so much more real if we never got to see him. Also because we just like jump 2 years and seeing that would have been so much better. Show me the grief and the attempts at moving on. This act 1 set up already feels half assed.

I really thought I would be into this movie but it's kind of dragging. I feel like I understand what it's trying to do but it's just missing so hard. I like the concept of a grieving widow leaving messages for a husband that will never read them but connecting with a stranger over it doesn’t feel right. Her sister pushing her to move on also feels just bad. People need to grieve in their own time and I think that anyone who forces their loved one into moving on is kind of terrible.

Having Nick Jonas play her obnoxious, brain dead first date is actually so funny to me though.

Having Celine Dion in this movie is…fine. Like I get that this was a bit close to home for her because she did recently lose her husband. But then you remember that her husband met her when she was 12 and he was 38 and she was very thoroughly groomed. So sure she loved him and the loss must feel terrible but he was gross and no one really feels bad that he’s gone. So I kind of had a hard time watching her talk about her husband in this movie because they started dating the second she turned 18 and there is no way to look at it where their relationship isn’t disgusting. And watching a grown woman mourn a man that groomed her is really painful to watch. She stays loyal and defends her husband despite him being a horrible person and I think that though it wasn’t her fault, she's grown now and needs to get it together.

This male lead is also not interesting at all. He seems very flat and easily swayed. There is no depth or personality, we can guess at what his relationship trauma is but there really hasn’t been much time spent on his backstory and therefore we have nothing to root for.

When they finally meet there doesn't feel like there is any chemistry or anything between them. The lighting and framing tells us that we should like them as a couple and that this is a big moment but there really doesn’t feel like there is.

There starts to be some emotion when they are on the phone arranging a date. They are both equally awkward which is charming and cute but then they meet and there is nothing beyond that.

It seems like this movie is trying to follow basic romantic comedy structure; there is a boy, there is a girl, one of them goes out of their way to meet the other in a way that would make the other person have a less than desirable reaction. So it's a secret that eventually comes out. Third act misunderstanding or they find out and then happy ending. The problem with the execution for this movie is that it doesn’t flesh out any of those beats very well. We don’t find out his backstory until his first date with Mira…which by the way was his opportunity to tell her about the texts he’s been getting from her. I give this movie a 3/10, I love romantic comedies but this one was not good. I could forgive it being bad if it was bad and campy, or bad because it's cheesy. But the writing is just bad, there is nothing redeemable.