Love, Rosie tells the story of Rosie and Alex (Lily Collins and Sam Claflin), who have been best friends since they were five years old. When Rosie turned 18, she got drunk and kissed Alex, but remembered nothing of it the next day. Thus begins twelve years of missed connections and bad timing, the two always on the verge of taking the next step in their relationship, but never quite getting there. Love, Rosie takes the most basic romantic comedy premise and expands it to a twelve year period. It’s kind of exhausting at times, but strong chemistry between the leads makes it fairly palatable.
The story is taken from the Cecilia Ahern’s novel Where Rainbows End, and it is pretty much just the basic romcom conundrum writ large. Cinema is filled with movies about two people who really should be together but aren’t, circumstances keeping them apart for about the length of a feature film. Love, Rosie expands this problem to a period of twelve years, which multiplies the frustration with the plotline. Pretty much every romcom problem could be solved if people just talked to each other. The fact that the protagonists aren’t capable of being honest with each other actually makes them less sympathetic, which makes it a challenge to be invested in their eventual happiness.
There are points in Love, Rosie where a lack of honesty between the two main characters really threatens to sink the entire enterprise. It stops being believable that these two are meant to be the very best of friends. It is only the charming performances of both Collins and Claflin that keeps the whole thing afloat. Even in its most exhausting moments, the two share a noticeable spark that makes the run through cliché somewhat bearable.
It doesn’t fix the problems with the plot, which pretty much ends on a severe anticlimax that seems to ignore much of the human drama involved in their complicated interactions. But the two feel so good together that one might just overlook the myriad shortcomings. A horribly contrived airport chase is negated by a heartfelt speech made by Collins. An underdeveloped setup is salvaged by moments of realness between the two. And the anticlimactic ending is made somewhat charming by the bashful awkwardness of their interactions.
It helps that the film keeps things bouncy. It’s a little bit too reliant on pop music, but there’s a palpable energy in many of these scenes. One must also credit director Christian Ditter for making the film look as good as it does. Romcoms tend to be bland, flatly lit visual affairs. The film is much more willing to play with shadows. It creates several dramatic images that reflect the fragile emotional state of its characters.
Love, Rosie isn’t a very ambitious movie, but it is fairly well done. It at least avoids the temptation to oversell the drama of the situation. At its best, the film is smart enough to recognize that these two people are capable of finding some measure of happiness without each other, that they are complete people with hopes and dreams apart from simply pairing up. Brought to life by a pair of pretty charming actors, that’s enough to make the film palatable. It still isn’t great, but there are certainly worse ways to spend a hundred minutes of your life.
My Rating:
