She's The One - review (Prime)

Brief synopsis: A forty-year-old property developer is successful in all aspects of his life except for one; love. He wants to find his soul mate and, with the aid of friends and family, meet said mate by the date of the wedding of one of his friends.

Unbeknownst to him, his efforts to find love, hampered by a decades-old curse, placed on him by the mother of one of the women whose heart he broke in his younger, womanising days.

Is it any good?: She's The One - also known as Loves Spell - is a film written, produced and directed by Fredi 'Kruga' Nwaka.

Rarer than a unicorn, She's the One is a British, black rom-com. With a likeable lead in Kane Brown, She's The One is a passably amusing rom-com that is a little bit too long and leans into the comedy too much.

Spoiler territory: As a teenager, Treyvon (Yann Dominic - younger version) was a confident ladies man. Bragadocious about his skills with the ladies, Treyvon tells his good friend, Jirese (Malikai Nwaka - young version) he is a player.

Proving the point, he immediately hits on an attractive woman the two youngsters see passing. He gets her number, impressing Jirese. Before the two young men move on, Claire (Goda Nalivaikaite - young version) and her nervous friend, Shenisha (Imaan Humphrey - young version) stop them.

Shenisha has spotty, teenage skin that Treyvon immediately recoils from on seeing. Claire speaks for her nervous friend. She asks if Treyvon would consider going out with Shenisha.

Jirese, noting how hard it is for her, keeps quiet. Treyvon lacks his friend's tact, laughing at the notion of the unconfident, spotty skinned, Shenisha should want to get with him.

Treyvon insults and belittles her, pretending to give her his phone number. Fast forward twenty years and Treyvon (Kane Brown) is bemoaning his luck with the ladies over intervening decades.

He has not been able to sustain a proper relationship since that day. A successful property developer, just shy of forty, Treyvon wants to find a woman to settle down with.

With good friends, Jirese (Nwaka), Jason (Steve King), Brian (Hakan Hassan) and Cruz (Axel Blake), celebrating Jirese's impending nuptials. Treyvon recounts a couple of 'interesting' dates he had been on recently, including one that sang the entire time (Sabrina Weathers) and a ratchet, hoodrat, Charmaine (Verona Rose).

He tells them about a confidence destroying, evening out speed dating and an ill-fated blind date with Cindy (Jessica-Jane Stafford), a mother of several kids from different fathers.

As his friends laugh at his faltering love life, he tells about a promising encounter he had whilst out running. He fell over and was helped by a woman(Cindy Humphrey). He did not get her name but asked for her number.

She gives him the number and runs off. Treyvon's phone stops working and he loses the number. Jason tells him he needs to get a woman before Jirese gets married.

Jirese recommends that he see a relationship therapist friend of his, Miss Clara (Judi Love). Treyvon goes to see her. She is not much help.

As he heads home, he is accosted by a couple of vagrants (Christopher Savage, Michael waterman) asking him for money. He sees the woman he saw running but cannot get to her, the vagrants still hassling him.

He goes to see miss Francis (Claudine Osei), a surveyor. She is attractive, Treyvon decides to try his luck. Falling masonry interrupts his efforts.

Even his mother (Pearl Jarrett) comes to see him, worried about his seeming inability to settle down. She suggests he could meet a nice church girl.

He goes to see a psychic, Madam Ruby (Lola Jagun). She is not much help either, only managing to get in touch with a long-deceased girlfriend of his.

He turns to his friend, Ashley (Bradley Turner), getting him to set up a Tinder profile for him. Jirese is having some work done at the tattooist.

Cruz comes to see him, asking to borrow his car.

Both the tattooist (Jac Hall) and Jirese laugh at the request. Cruz also reiterates the need for them to find Treyvon a woman. The tattooist tells them about a party held by Cimone (Corine Wells).

Jirese, Jaason and Cruz head to the party, Treyvon goes to the gym. In the gym, he sees miss Francis again. He tries to hit on her again but gets short shrift. A younger gym user tells him that he is too old to hit on her.

In the evening, Treyvon gets beaten up by a couple of youths. The woman he saw running, comes to his rescue chasing them away.

His phone got broken in the altercation, so she takes him home to allow him to use her phone. He tells her his name is Trevor. She is Shenisha. She helps to clean him up and Ashley comes and picks him up.

The next day, Treyvon is encouraged by Cruz to look for Shenisha. He finds her and the two hit it off. She tells him she is moving shortly, the home she is living in sold.

The two spend the day together. The relationship begins to blossom. Shenisha tells Claire (Donna Preston) about Treyvon, showing her a picture. Claire is sure she knows his face from somewhere.

Treyvon goes to pick up Shenisha for a date. The date night goes badly. Though their relations remain intact, everything else that could go wrong does. They decide to have a night in. The evening does not improve.

He invites over the next evening, hoping to have a better date. The bad luck continues, the date beset by various mishaps. Later in the evening, Treyvon falls asleep whilst waiting for Shenisha. She sees that his company is buying the building she works.

Not only is she losing her home; she is also losing her job. She leaves him sleeping. Shenisha refuses to take his calls. Back home, she packs up her stuff, preparing to move.

Claire, who had investigated Treyvon's company at Shenisha's behest, tells her that Trevor is Treyvon. Trevor is his business name.

The next day, Treyvon, convinced Shenisha is the woman for him, goes to see her. She reminds him of their encounter twenty years before. She also tells him that he is destroying the gym where she works.

Treyvon decides to stop the deal to demolish the gym and the two talk. He knocks over an urn with Shenisha's mother's ashes in them. In the urn is a piece of paper.

The paper is the same one Treyvon wrote his fake phone number/insult on. Shenisha's mother cursed Treyvon, the curse only broken by true love. They break the curse and get together. The end.

Final thoughts: She's The One is not as enjoyable on second viewing. The film contains too many extraneous scenes and, as mentioned before, prioritises comedy over romance.

Kane Brown is a likeable lead and that helps the film immensely. A less likeable lead would have made the film unwatchable. Brown's chemistry with Cindy Humphery is excellent. Unfortunately, the two have very little screen time together.

At an hour-and-fifty minute long, She's The One is too damn long. This is even more apparent on second viewing. So many scenes are unnecessary and add nothing to proceedings.

As I alluded to before, there is a lot of comedy. When the comedy works, it is funny. Some of the dating scenes are comedy gold. Also, Brown's Treyvon forced to suffer housemate Ashley's (Bradley Turner) noisy bedroom antics with Reesh (Nickita Tia Martin) is very funny.

Other scenes are too reminiscent of old school British farce. Treyvon misinterpreting the sounds coming from Ashley and Reesh and Judi Love's Clara blowing on his crotch after a mishap come to mind.

She's The One is not unwatchable but it is not as good as it could have been. Such is the paucity of black, British rom-coms, that I really wanted to enjoy this film.

Unfortunately, She's The One is only okay and, as such, difficult to recommend.