Directed By Jim Strouse

Starring – Priya Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Celine Dion

The Plot – In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, Mira Ray (Chopra Jonas) sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number…not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns (Heughan)’ new work phone. A journalist, Rob is captivated by the honesty in the beautifully confessional texts. When he’s assigned to write a profile of megastar Celine Dion, he enlists her help in figuring out how to meet Mira in person and win her heart.

Rated PG-13 for some sexual material and some strong adult language

LOVE AGAIN – Official Trailer (HD) – YouTube

POSITIVES

While the romantic capabilities of the two leads leaves more to be desired, the individual merits of their investments to the cause help “Love Again” to evade insufferable territory, in turn keeping it from being one of the worst films of the year by proxy. Chopra Jonas is of course the central prize-winner here, solidifying a warmth in heart and tenderness in vulnerability to Mira that not only makes her an easy protagonist to invest in, but one whose sincerity feels like the driving force in a film that feels like it’s constantly working against her, in turn prescribing value to her worth that makes the most of a devastating situation. Aside from a dazzling leading lady, the film refuses to waste a single minute of its 99 minute run time, setting the movements of the plot to motion in the opening ten minutes of the narrative, and then remaining faithfully consistent throughout every beat of Mira and Rob’s blossoming relationship. This velocity certainly helps to articulate the idea of love at first sight between them, taking them by storm quite literally overnight, but also for the script allows it to manintain urgency throughout beats that are otherwise cloaked in predictability, keeping me from ever feeling bored, despite me easily detecting what was to come as early as an hour before it materialized. Lastly, while Celine Dion isn’t my personal taste in music, I can’t help but appreciate the radiance in big screen appeal that her collection of songs enriches within the presentation and surrounding atmospheric scenery. As to where most romantic comedies pertain an on-the-nose series of compositions that leave little interpretation or subtleties to the scenes they adorn, Dion’s tracks here conjure an enchanting elegance that work cohesively with the transpiring imagery, but never in numbers that feel overtly exploitative or tedious.

NEGATIVES

Almost everything about “Love Again” feels insincere and oblivious to the reality of its ridiculous plot and what materializes from such sappy and melodramatic fluff. From the sociopathic tendencies of a male lead taking advantage of an emotionally reeling woman for his own selfish gain, to Dion herself, who is clearly her own biggest fan, everything here lacks the kind of humanity and believability that allows us to see these people as living beings, or the film as anything but a forgettably bland exercise to rope couples into a nightmare-inducing date night. Part of the proof in this theory is the cringe-inducing consistencies of the dialogue, which with sitcom levels of one-liners feel desparate to comprise the entirety of the film’s marketing trailers, but so much more emphasis in diminished opportunity lends itself to the brutal imbalance between hybrid genres that can’t even live up to the minimal necessities. The romance is obvious in the entirety of the engagement, even with a main couple that completely eviscerates the concept of chemistry, and one-way conversations that only flesh out Mira, but the comedy goes virtually absent throughout, allowing little to no redeeming levity from the overwhelming consistency of lovey-dovey content that feels saturated in sleeze by the film’s midway point. Beyond this, the technical components can’t measure up towards any more appeal for the engagement, with poorly-mixed audio deposits, horrendous lighting that often obscures facial registries, and uninspired cinematography that somehow can’t find beauty or charm in New York City. This gives the film an unintentional glow of artificiality that practically mirrors the energy and conventionalism of Strouse’s often underwhelming direction, proving little escape or even temporary reprieve from the abundance of predictability that dominates the spectrum of the film’s creative direction. On that front, “Love Again” is littered shamelessly with every kind of romantic comedy cliche that you can think of, which made the film feel like the longest game of Bingo, as I crossed off one after the other. Gay best friend? CHECK, Abundance of misunderstandings that are easily explainable? CHECK, Third act break-up? CHECK, Predictable outcome? CHECK. All of them are assorted without even accidental deviation, and because I feel like I’ve seen this film a hundred times before, it’s never able to shine on its own element of originality, when contemporary romantic comedies like “Good Luck to you, Leo Grande” or “Rye Lane” reinvent the wheel of romantic comedy expectations. Finally, while I previously commended the film in its use of Celine Dion in the soundtrack, her inclusion to the script is one that unfortunately makes this a commercial for her catalog, which is made all the more perplexing when you consider the artist hasn’t been culturally relevant in over twenty years. The script forcefully finds ways to reincorporate to the dynamic of the couple, and when it focuses on her, Dion comes across as this stiffly acted and rudely crass celebrity that brings out everything about the singer that made her a chore to deal with in her hay-day, made worse by Strouse summoning her to constantly remind us of her greatness. We get it, Celine.

OVERALL
“Love Again” lacks any kind of spark or accidental energy to help transcend the abundance of set-your-watch cliches and script-promoted shallowness that make up a majority of the engagement. While Priya Chopra Jonas gives her all in a way that will inevitably allow her to do bigger things with her career, the pit-stop here feels like a glass half empty kind of situation, with another lukewarm romantic comedy for the skyscraping pile that grows all the more redundant with Strouse’s absorbing direction feeling like a greatest hits of genre offenses.

My Grade: 3/10 or D-