Reviews

I knew this wasn't an AFI 100, but I figured it was still a movie worth watching. Unfortunately the movie never really gets off the ground, and then it plods along in the middle.

The movie tightens up at the end, which makes me think how the movie might have been much closer to 10 if it had been more tightly written and a half hour shorter.

I like the premise of the first season of the American version, even though some of the contestants were disappointing in their behavior towards their partners. I had an inkling that the Japanese version of the show would be better than that first American version.

What really surprised me was the very healthy mix of contestants by the producers. Most of the contestants truly seemed more interested in being potential marital partners over promoting their own businesses or boosting their social media profiles.

In any matchmaking process, there are always going to be matches that don't work out along the way. An encouraging point is that these participants seem to have learned valuable lessons along the way, even if it didn't translate to forever love in front of the camera.

There were many opportunities for the series to falter in the second season, but great writing and very good acting kept that from happening.

Sure, there's a certain far-fetched element to the whole story, but it's easy to keep all of that in suspension as you're rooting for the Pogue teens to have some wins, which seem few and far between.

While I'm rooting for a third season to resolve the cliffhangers remaining from the end of the second season, I'm doubtful that there's enough plot yet to flesh out after so much good action has already taken place. A feature-length movie might be the way to go, much like the one at the end of Downton Abbey.

I was tempted to rate the movie a 6/10, which is the top score I'll give any successful, feel-good rom-com. The decision to add the extra star really had to do with the writing. It was a bit better than the average movie of this genre.

In particular, there was lots of room to go negative in a movie like this, where the main characters withheld the truth and had to come clean. The writers found a mature way to resolve the dilemmas, while keeping the comedy fresh.

In an ironic way, less drama made for a better movie!

The movie started with great pace and promise, but it slowed down towards the middle. It even felt like it was going in reverse at one point! Many of the characters were not thoroughly fleshed out, particularly the main character's parents. No way would they have been so rah-rah supportive, in such a short amount of time, of their son's newly found freedom.