Romance movies are hit or miss for me; I’m either sobbing or waiting for it to end. I heard a lot of mixed reviews for “Love Again,” directed by Jim Strouse, and when Netflix released it Sept. 17, I wanted to give it a try. But, within the first 30 minutes of the movie, I found myself bored waiting for it to end.
The movie starts with Mira, played by Priyanka Chopra, sitting in a coffee shop with her boyfriend John and within the first three minutes, John was killed by a drunk driver. I understand the concept of the movie being about Mira overcoming the loss of John, but we didn’t even have a moment to learn about their relationship at all.
As we jump to two years later — without any explanation of the loss of John — we see Mira trying to overcome the loss of her boyfriend while continuing her career as a children’s author.
Back at her shared apartment with her sister, Mira finds the engagement ring John was going to propose with. I think in the beginning of the movie we should’ve witnessed John proposing to her, as it would’ve created a more meaningful connection between the two and their loss. At this point in the movie everything felt too predictable: two people in love and one is tragically killed.
We are introduced to Rob, played by Sam Heughan, who is a journalist in New York. Rob’s assignment is to cover Celine Dion — who is a producer of the film — and learn more about why she creates the music she does ahead of her concert. For this assignment Rob is given a company phone, at the same time that Mira suddenly decides she wants to text John through his old number — you can only imagine what happens.
Surprise! Mira’s text messages go to Rob’s company phone. When Rob gets these deep messages, he is immediately intrigued and — unlike a normal person — decides not to tell her she has the wrong number.
When Mira gets set up for a blind date — with Nick Jonas — she texts “John.” Rob figures out she is going to an opera that is playing in town — I still don’t understand how he figured that one out. Rob goes to the opera every day until he finally sees Mira at the final show — it only took an hour of the movie to get here.
Meanwhile during this entire experience of Rob meeting Mira, Rob is getting love advice from Celine. I understand the concept of Celine trying to help him with his love life, but honestly at some parts of the movie it felt weird for Rob to be talking to her.
After a dinner date, Rob and Mira spend the entire night together in the park — literally the sun was rising. During their second date, Mira wakes up at Rob’s house and sees Rob’s computer with the texts Mira has been sending to “John.” Shockingly, they get into a huge fight and Mira ends everything.
The movie wouldn’t be a romantic love story without Rob trying to win Mira back. Instead of printing his Celine Dion story, Rob creates a love story titled “Texts for Mira.” What person would love all of their texts released out into the world? Clearly Mira.
In the happy — but clearly predictable — ending, Mira and Rob end up deeply in love and together at the Celine Dion concert.
Despite the cute concept of this story, I found this to be too cliche. Along with that, Mira and Rob’s chemistry was not strong throughout the movie. The concept was there, but it wasn’t executed to the fullest potential.
This story was written by Sophie Goldstein. She can be reached at [email protected].
