Love Again

Romantic comedies or romcoms have been around for almost as long as the genre of comedy itself, and with that they are perennially as popular. I haven't seen all the romcoms released, but I've seen a good many, and typically they are predictable, fluffy and fairly mediocre. Because of their similarity, this genre has been attempting to re-invent itself with fairly different premises as with the case of "Love Again". 

What if a random text message led to the love of your life? In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiance, John (Arinze Kene), Mira Ray (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number...not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns' (Sam 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 (playing herself in her first film role), he enlists her help in figuring out how to meet Mira in person...and win her heart. With the help of his work associates, including Billy Brooks (Russell Tovey) and Lisa Scott (Lydia West), will he be able to pull it off?

Others to round out the cast are Steve Oram as Richard Hughes, Sophia Barclay as Suzy Ray, Mira's sister, Omid Djalili as Mohsen "Mo", Celia Imrie as Gina Valentine and Nick Jonas as Joel, in a cameo role. 

This was efficiently and adequately directed by Jim Strouse ("Grace is Gone" '07, "The Winning Season" '09, "People Places Things" '15, "The Incredible Jessica James" '17). Even though romcoms aren't specifically the toughest genre to direct, this filmmaker was still able to convey to his audience a true concern for these two forlorn people that have come from past relationships that haven't ended well, but for very different reasons. They were conveyed in a real and captivating way, and with that, this director will keep delving into more projects. It was also interestingly written by Jim Strouse, which is based on a motion picture, "Text for You" by Andrea Wilson, Malte Welding, Karoline Herfurth, Sophie Kluge and Anika Decker. I've never seen the film that this film is based on, however, seeing that five writers were involved on creating that script leads me to believe that, since the decades I have been watching films, I've come to the belief that when there is more than two writers on the creation of a script, it has a tendency to become convoluded and bogged down. This being restructured by a single writer, I feel makes this an interesting film. Does this mean this was flawless? No, it had a few areas of slowness, but not enough to distract. And, in this day and age, using a smart phone and texting certainly makes it next millennium based. It being a romcom, it is predictable, but because of the unique plot and, as with other romcoms, it's not the originality your looking for as much as how these two finally get together and, as with others, live happily ever after. Both Chopra Jonas and Heughan have a very effective chemistry in this which makes you want to root for them that much more.

If you like romcoms, you will be in that heaven, but even if not, the chemistry between the two and the interesting premise should be enough to get you to the multiplex to see this predictable, however funny and effective love story. Because, whether we lose loved ones from death or a breakup, isn't it fitting that we can still have the opportunity to love again?

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                            Rated: PG-13                                       104mins.