Love Again, the review: starting to love again (badly) with Céline Dion

The review of Love Again: from 11 May a romantic comedy full of good ideas but with bad performance arrives at the cinema. The film is directed by Jim Strouse, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan and the participation of Céline Dion to celebrate her music.

It had all the elements to be able to work and bring something new to the romcom genre but unfortunately we have to reject it Love Again, the new film directed by Jim Strouse starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan and in cinemas from May 11, produced by Sony Pictures and distributed by Eagle Pictures. As we will explain in our review, the film it is the clear demonstration that a good cast and a potentially winning basic idea are not enough, if the writing and staging are not solid and are not capable of reviving and exploiting the genre to which they belong.

Love again

The title of the film, which is also the title of a song by Céline Dion, back on the breach in reality as in cinematic fiction, refers to the reluctance of the two protagonists to love again after having a broken heart. Mira Ray (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), author of children’s books, was “widowed” after her boyfriend was involved in a car accident before he could propose, while Rob Burns (Sam Heughan), entertainment journalist, was dumped almost at the altar by his longtime girlfriend. Their lives meet in an unexpected and anomalous way: two years after the loss, Mira to try to heal tries to talk to her deceased boyfriend through a series of messages on her cell phone, whose number, however, was automatically reassigned to Rob’s new company phone . At this point it is good to underline how everything takes place during a blackout, testifying that that narrative expedient is inserted without any real purpose, given that the explanation is technological and not supernatural. The two protagonists will therefore have to learn to open their hearts again and to bet on the other and on what they don’t yet know about love.

Supporting actors and cameos

The house of cards set up by the film begins to falter very soon, when the expression of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, already appreciated in Quantico and now back on the crest of the wave with Citadelfaced with the looming tragedy, he is unable to convey the whole mix of sensations experienced through his own gaze, as the director would have liked Jim Strouse who chose a close-up but didn’t know how to direct it at its best. Even the almost monolithic expression of Sam Heughan, beloved by fans of Outlander, doesn’t help create that chemistry with the co-star nor the so-called funny and awkward scenes that their respective characters are supposed to represent. The tragicomic story of two young people who have known pain too soon and therefore do not know exactly how to fall in love again and throw themselves into the fray, is neither tragic nor comical, but a tasteless interlude, just like their inability to cook.

The canonical romantic comedy supporting actors don’t help in this, and to say that the director had arrows in his bow like Russell Tovey and Lydia West (both from Years and Years plus countless other British serials) and above all Celine Dion, who here finds herself in the role of herself, obviously over the top, halfway between the therapist and the match maker: a badly exploited super cameo, who speaks in set phrases, and generates little sympathy in the spectator, almost lower the level of his own songs. Contrary to the appearance of Nick Jonas, in reality Priyanka’s husband, who instead participates in the film with a fun and amused role because he is strongly self-ironic.

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Good ideas, bad results

Everything is too winked in the film, from the soundtrack impregnated with songs by Dion to the photography of excessive warm colors, instead of being as delicate as the subject it wants to tell. This is just one of the many good ideas misused by the film both in the script and in the staging: the boy who no longer believes in love and in Céline Dion’s songs could generate many nice interludes, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen, like many others narrative cues used little or badly in the scenic rendering. The same goes for the adventurous world of apps for Myra through her more libertine and self-confident sister. Love Again is also set in New York but it does not exploit the magic of the city in the slightest: this is how a serenade in Central Park loses all its value and appeal to the anonymous and almost heartless staging, because it could have taken place anywhere. The film would have liked to refer to Serendipity – When love is magic, but if there is a mastery in managing life’s coincidences, here everything is false and unrealistic even in the suspension of disbelief, like the postponed interview by Rob with the singer, the publication of a piece without supervision and approval of its director (!), or how Rob recognizes Mira in the crowd without having any information. A waste of a romcom that could have been so much more.