User Reviews

Multiple stories interweaving is a compelling trope, and a cheap one to shoot, and that shows. It's mostly technically perfectly competent, with some awkward edits at cutaways, but lighting, framing, sound, grade, etc no issues. It's production on easy mode in many ways, as you can produce a lot of the stories separately which allows you more flexibility than a monolithic feature shoot. It makes good use of the budget, and the budget is used effectively this way.

The budget constraints meant things like "the wedding venue that you can only get 2 years ahead" doesn't live up to the conceit, and it feels a bit lumpy for that. "Poland" obviously wasn't, but could have been set up with stock library for instance.

When done right, you get "Love, Actually" which is a masterclass in the overlapping story style. But that's Richard Curtis, he's fundable and experienced, and it shows (if mawkish!). Things are set up and pay off, there's even a contrived but compelling top and tail airport arrivals scene which is clearly an afterthought to create a symmetry, and that's what you get with a bigger, more experienced team.

Where this film seems to differ is that the script doesn't make anything of the interconnections, they're just incidental, and that means lacking an overall story arc (which is always the risk with the model). The film starts in one direction with a "Lost and Found" shed and ends with a wedding for the same character (apparently also the writer/director) so why not set that arc up early? Why not use the scenes along the way to contribute giving the protagonist some challenges to grow through? The wedding ring being brought into the L&F was the perfect excuse. The treasure/bracelet story could have gone somewhere and found an old ring from the protagonist's great grandparent. The (multiple) deaths could have been counterpoint against the baby brought in story from the first setup, even a birth motif which was already set up but never used or paid off...

In the end 3* and they're mostly for effort, I wish I could give more, but ultimately a deeply unsatisfying film. It felt like 7 shorts nailed together with a limited cast, not what was promised.