I went to this with the full expectation that I was going to see a chick flick, and had come to terms with that by the time it started.
This, however, is not a chick flick. This is a "romance" film about two individuals who, whilst both in perfectly-good-but-not-quite-perfect relationships with other people, take a fancy to a random stranger they meet in a department store one evening and so spend the rest of the night flirting outrageously like a cheap tart with them.
This done, off they both go to continue their extant relationships. Unfortunately, instead of realising that they could do better and bringing the relationships to a neat end, they only decide to make a run for it on the eves of their coincident weddings. How serendipitous.
We then have the pleasure of watching them each drag their best friends (one of whom's marriage is destroyed in the process) across the planet in order to try and find their once-potential philanderer, whilst their nice bride/groom stands rather forlornly alone at the altar. As any plot line following the jilted spouses is abandoned at this point, I am surmising that they were stood up. Perhaps they died. Who cares.
Man finds girl, some snow falls, some kissing ensues and our happy couple realise that the forty-five minutes they spent together in a restaurant six months ago are more than enough to base their everlasting happiness on. Audience feel warm and fuzzy inside. Speaking for myself, I was certainly
close to tears.
The idea that this film could be billed as a romantic comedy is quite extraordinary. Certainly, the leading characters appear to share the moral outlook of a badger on heat and in that respect I'm very glad they managed to find a like-minded mate. Every other character featured in the film is quite laughably two-dimensional and the only deliberately comedic fragment I managed to spot was a quite nicely done best man's speech - made at the weddding subsequently destroyed by our lovably lust-fuelled hero and heroine.
I am secretly hoping that the joke is on me, and Mr. Chelsom is treating us to a wonderfully dark satire on morals and romance in modern times. Somehow, though, I just can't make myself believe it.
This, however, is not a chick flick. This is a "romance" film about two individuals who, whilst both in perfectly-good-but-not-quite-perfect relationships with other people, take a fancy to a random stranger they meet in a department store one evening and so spend the rest of the night flirting outrageously like a cheap tart with them.
This done, off they both go to continue their extant relationships. Unfortunately, instead of realising that they could do better and bringing the relationships to a neat end, they only decide to make a run for it on the eves of their coincident weddings. How serendipitous.
We then have the pleasure of watching them each drag their best friends (one of whom's marriage is destroyed in the process) across the planet in order to try and find their once-potential philanderer, whilst their nice bride/groom stands rather forlornly alone at the altar. As any plot line following the jilted spouses is abandoned at this point, I am surmising that they were stood up. Perhaps they died. Who cares.
Man finds girl, some snow falls, some kissing ensues and our happy couple realise that the forty-five minutes they spent together in a restaurant six months ago are more than enough to base their everlasting happiness on. Audience feel warm and fuzzy inside. Speaking for myself, I was certainly
close to tears.
The idea that this film could be billed as a romantic comedy is quite extraordinary. Certainly, the leading characters appear to share the moral outlook of a badger on heat and in that respect I'm very glad they managed to find a like-minded mate. Every other character featured in the film is quite laughably two-dimensional and the only deliberately comedic fragment I managed to spot was a quite nicely done best man's speech - made at the weddding subsequently destroyed by our lovably lust-fuelled hero and heroine.
I am secretly hoping that the joke is on me, and Mr. Chelsom is treating us to a wonderfully dark satire on morals and romance in modern times. Somehow, though, I just can't make myself believe it.