When a film starts with a quote from Margaret Atwood - as though anything she's ever written wasn't either totally obvious or totally bollocks - it should be a bit of a warning sign, but, I kept going and decided to give it a chance.
The first problem makes an appearance early on; I think the director has confused pretty with likeable here. Lead actress Emilia Jones is undeniably pretty and can act, but she could only do so much with the role she was given, and unfortunately this makes it difficult to be on her side as we watch her story unfold. Similarly, the secondary lead - Nicholas Braun - is photogenic and a decent actor, but he too is given a mountain to climb with the role he is given. As if this wasn't bad enough, the rest of the characters are immensely unlikeable; pretty soon you're left thinking that anything bad which happens to any of them will be thoroughly deserved. Unfortunately for the audience however, you don't even get that satisfaction.
The next problem is one of tonal shift. The movie isn't at all sure what it wants to be. It's okay to have a tonal shift in a movie - sometimes that can provide a great twist - but this thing goes from quirky romance comedy, to dark horror story with a jarring switch; it is like shifting from fourth gear to reverse, and works about as well as doing that would.
Not only this, any semblance of sympathy we are supposed to have for the main characters evaporates with a series of barely-credible changes in character which leave you thinking that if the second lead had throttled the main, it would have been thoroughly deserved and in fact that might possibly saved the movie, but alas no. When you think that about a character you are presumably supposed to at least identify with a little, that's not a good thing.
To give you an idea of how awful the tone is, here goes: The two leads meet and commence a romance conducted initially solely by texts. Their exchanges are witty, intelligent and both get along well with one another, leading them to meet for a date. But when they meet in person, their conversation is awkward, stilted and completely unlike their text exchanges. Now we might find such a thing believable initially before they feel comfortable with one another in person, but whereas in reality it would only take a short while for that to occur and they'd be the same in person as they were via texts, in this movie, they somehow transform into two completely different people in terms of sensibilities and demeanour. It just does not come across as remotely believable. And even if such a thing did occur, it would simply mean they'd give it up as a bad job and either go back to just texting, or sack it off completely.
I won't bore you with how it all goes from there, suffice to say that if you were watching any lightweight romantic comedy movie and in the third act it turned into Silence of the Lambs for some inexplicable reason, you'd pretty much have this movie. It really does shift that much in genre, and this with all the writing panache and flair of the instructions on a tin of paint.
I'd certainly not hold either of the main actors to blame for how bad the movie is; it really isn't their fault that the script goes where it does, and to their credit, they do their best with it even when it does swerve off the road. The writer and the director on the other hand, should hang their heads in shame at having produced this load of confused claptrap.
The first problem makes an appearance early on; I think the director has confused pretty with likeable here. Lead actress Emilia Jones is undeniably pretty and can act, but she could only do so much with the role she was given, and unfortunately this makes it difficult to be on her side as we watch her story unfold. Similarly, the secondary lead - Nicholas Braun - is photogenic and a decent actor, but he too is given a mountain to climb with the role he is given. As if this wasn't bad enough, the rest of the characters are immensely unlikeable; pretty soon you're left thinking that anything bad which happens to any of them will be thoroughly deserved. Unfortunately for the audience however, you don't even get that satisfaction.
The next problem is one of tonal shift. The movie isn't at all sure what it wants to be. It's okay to have a tonal shift in a movie - sometimes that can provide a great twist - but this thing goes from quirky romance comedy, to dark horror story with a jarring switch; it is like shifting from fourth gear to reverse, and works about as well as doing that would.
Not only this, any semblance of sympathy we are supposed to have for the main characters evaporates with a series of barely-credible changes in character which leave you thinking that if the second lead had throttled the main, it would have been thoroughly deserved and in fact that might possibly saved the movie, but alas no. When you think that about a character you are presumably supposed to at least identify with a little, that's not a good thing.
To give you an idea of how awful the tone is, here goes: The two leads meet and commence a romance conducted initially solely by texts. Their exchanges are witty, intelligent and both get along well with one another, leading them to meet for a date. But when they meet in person, their conversation is awkward, stilted and completely unlike their text exchanges. Now we might find such a thing believable initially before they feel comfortable with one another in person, but whereas in reality it would only take a short while for that to occur and they'd be the same in person as they were via texts, in this movie, they somehow transform into two completely different people in terms of sensibilities and demeanour. It just does not come across as remotely believable. And even if such a thing did occur, it would simply mean they'd give it up as a bad job and either go back to just texting, or sack it off completely.
I won't bore you with how it all goes from there, suffice to say that if you were watching any lightweight romantic comedy movie and in the third act it turned into Silence of the Lambs for some inexplicable reason, you'd pretty much have this movie. It really does shift that much in genre, and this with all the writing panache and flair of the instructions on a tin of paint.
I'd certainly not hold either of the main actors to blame for how bad the movie is; it really isn't their fault that the script goes where it does, and to their credit, they do their best with it even when it does swerve off the road. The writer and the director on the other hand, should hang their heads in shame at having produced this load of confused claptrap.