In the Mood for a Rom-Com?
There’s a nifty bait-and-switch at play in “Love at First Sight,” a film that exceeds expectations by being slightly more interesting than its completely generic title. It’s the story of Hadley (Haley Lu Richardson), an American girl and Oliver (Ben Hardy), a London boy, who meet at JFK Airport and fall in love on a red eye across the pond. The sequence on the plane only comprises about 20 minutes of the film. They’re actually asleep for most of the flight, and their rapport hardly indicates the kind of intense connection that would be the foundation of a real relationship, or even a 90-minute film. They seem like nice people who like each other, but you can’t quite see the roses blooming or the fireworks exploding. (Author’s note: Do not bring fireworks on a plane.)
Once they arrive at Heathrow and are immediately separated, Hadley and Oliver spend the rest of the film trying to get back to one another. Despite the title, their instantaneous connection isn’t really the point. Instead, the film shows us how love is forged through actions. It seems unlikely these two would have stuck with it after a mere few hours of mile-high flirting, but the actions they take —abandoning family functions, trudging through London in the rain, and, in one case, bartering for a new pair of shoes — are an investment in love, and, as a result, the requisite happy ending they receive feels mostly earned. It might even make you want to do something nice for your spouse or partner after the credits roll.
So, if it’s all about the effort, could Oliver and Hadley have fallen in love with anyone? Not really. These two are particularly charming without ever tipping over into rom-com caricature. Oliver is sweet, handsome, and entirely non-threatening, unless you count his penchant for secrets: he neatly avoids every question Hadley asks about what’s bringing him back to London. He allows her to believe he also has a wedding to attend, but the truth, when it’s revealed, is much sadder. Hadley’s occasion is only sweeter in theory. Her father is getting remarried, but it’s to a woman she’s never met, and since he moved to London for work, the father and daughter have barely spoken.
Reading between the lines, it’s clear that Oliver and Hadley might both be leaping into love to fill a familial void in their lives, and the film neither judges their sublimation nor ignores it. Rather, director Vanessa Caswill lavishes the proceedings with so much feel-goodery that the film’s darker moments go down smoothly. There’s the familiar but not-too-specific pop music, the pink light that inexplicably bathes nearly every building in the film, and the cool and casual vibe between Hadley and her father (Rob Delaney) — it all works in harmony to forge a mood impossible to resist, although equally hard to draw something meaningful out of.
Even at a slim 91 minutes, “Love at First Sight” feels slightly padded, especially with the repeated intrusions of Jameela Jamil, who both narrates the film and appears as over a dozen characters, from a flight attendant to a bus driver. We’re meant to see her as a guardian angel, which painfully undermines the film’s fundamental idea that love is not destiny but a combination of choice and timing. Regardless, I spent most of the time Jamil was on screen worrying that her bangs, cut to a curious length, were going to scratch her eyeballs. Not a good sign.
Expectations are low right now for romantic comedies, a genre that has gone missing from mainstream cinema, and “Love at First Sight” generally exceeds them. It’s not nearly as enjoyable as this year’s “Rye Lane”, an independent romance that, coincidentally, is also set over the course of one day in London. That film has personality, color, and a bit of an adult edge, while “Love at First Sight” is just generic enough to be your choice for family movie night. It’s unlikely to become anyone’s favorite rom-com, but it won’t displease anyone either. You get the feeling that’s exactly what the filmmakers were aiming for.
“Love at First Sight” premieres on Netflix on Friday, September 15.
