Love, Rosie is pure feel-good fun
Film & TV
At the heart of this movie is a simple question: “Can childhood friends be lovers?”
You probably know the answer, so it’s hardly a spoiler—and you’ve also heard the maxim that the path of true love never runs smooth, at least in storytelling. If it did, this movie and the book on which it is based, Cecelia Ahern’s Where Rainbows End, would never have emerged.
Love, Rosie is a feel-good tale without surprises but offering some endearing moments. The plot is pure chick flick in the mode of Four Weddings and a Funeral, winding its way from the key characters’ close relationship as children through their partings and reunions over the years, until…
After school, Alex and Rosie both aim to leave their UK homes and take up scholarships in the US, though only one of them makes it. Time and mistiming are the chief ingredients here beyond love itself. There are numerous events that interrupt or redirect the protagonists’ lives, such as other love interests. But are they merely wayposts while Rosie and Alex wait for the elusive right moment, that coincidence of desire and opportunity and a little extra courage? There are hopes and sadness along that rocky path.
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Sam Claflin brings a Hugh Grant quality to his part as Alex, with a similar range of expressions and speech mannerisms. Fortunately, these are not too intrusive. He is less impressive, however, than Lily Collins as the charming Rosie Dunne, the daughter of a hotel commissionaire who wishes her a better life than his own.
There is eye candy, too—Tamsin Egerton as Sally, the lovely but jittery US attraction for Alex, and Christian Cooke as the toned but unreliable Greg, who has an important role in Rosie’s life. Watch, too, for Jaime Winstone as Ruby, Rosie’s sassy friend and confidante.
You might flinch a little at recognising a number of lines and situations, but originality is not this movie’s long suit. Nor is it probably expected to be. Go expecting light entertainment and a few laughs and you won’t be disappointed.
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