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2023, Romance/Comedy, 1h 44m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Love Again ? After watching this treacly romance, you're likely to come away thinking once was more than enough. Read critic reviews

Audience Says

With a sweet story and lots of Celine Dion, Love Again is a rewatchable treat for rom-com fans. Read audience reviews

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Love again videos, love again   photos.

What if a random text message led to the love of your life? In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, Mira Ray sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number... not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns' 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.

Rating: PG-13 (Some Strong Language|Some Sexual Material)

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Original Language: English

Director: James C. Strouse

Producer: Basil Iwanyk , Erica Lee , Esther Hornstein

Writer: James C. Strouse

Release Date (Theaters): May 5, 2023  wide

Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2023

Box Office (Gross USA): $5.9M

Runtime: 1h 44m

Distributor: Sony Pictures

Production Co: Sony Pictures, Screen Gems, Thunder Road Films, 2.0 Entertainment

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Cast & Crew

Priyanka Chopra Jonas

Sam Heughan

Céline Dion

Russell Tovey

Billy Brooks

Richard Hughes

Arinzé Kene

Sofia Barclay

Celia Imrie

Gina Valentine

Omid Djalili

James C. Strouse

Screenwriter

Basil Iwanyk

Esther Hornstein

Doug Belgrad

Executive Producer

Sophie Cassidy

Louise Killin

Jonathan Fuhrman

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‘Love Again’ Review: Far-Fetched Romance Finds Celine Dion Ready for Her Close-Up … and Her Comeback

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan play depressed singles who hit it off after exchanging a series of embarrassing text messages in a movie featuring Celine Dion in her big-screen debut.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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Love Again

We’ve all heard Celine Dion ’s “My Heart Will Go On,” but if you really listen to the lyrics — “Love can touch us one time / And last for a lifetime” — the tragedy-defying hope they describe applies to more than just comely Rose learning to live without her blue-eyed cabin boy. Eighteen years after “Titanic” made her a mega-star, Dion lost her husband and manager, René Angélil, and the singer has made no secret of her struggle to move on since.

From the consumer electronics company (I mean, movie studio) that brought you “The Emoji Movie” comes a feature-length advertisement for the power of cellphones to bring people together. Cynical as that may sound, the movie is at least genuine about its emotional journey, making it an inspired choice to enlist Dion as both chorus and mascot for romantic leads Mira ( Priyanka Chopra Jonas ) and Rob (Sam Heughan). In urging them on, the pop star reveals her own resilience, demonstrating “The Power of Love” and her own readiness to perform again.

Two years after watching the love of her life struck down by a self-driving car, or else crushed by a fleet of scooters (we’ll never know, since said accident occurs right in front of Mira’s eyes but outside our view), Chopra Jonas’ character is having a hard time letting go. Without realizing that Rob is on the receiving end, she starts flooding his new work phone with wincingly intimate texts — messages about how she misses the smell of her soul mate, and her desire to be naked together.

Enter Celine Dion, whom Rob’s been assigned to profile for the only-in-the-movies newspaper where he “works.” Played by the Scottish “Outlander” star with a disconcerting, what-is-he-hiding stare, he brings a strange energy to the role. Rob could be Alexander Skarsgård’s serial-killer sibling. The only difference between this guy and all the chiseled-abs dudes Mira swipes past on Bumble is that Rob wears shirts — though they don’t appear to have been washed in a few days.

Edgier than the film’s target audience as he is, Rob doesn’t think much of Dion, dismissing her lyrics as sentimental and trite — which even a Celine Dion super fan (like myself) would concede to be true. Dion’s power is in her delivery: the pure chest-thumping conviction with which she howls lines like “Where does my heart beat now? / Where is the sound / That only echoes through the night?” Slouchy and unshaven, Rob shows up to interview the singer, and she turns the tables: “You have the presence of a pair of used underwear,” she quips, her Canadian accent undercutting the comic timing and bite of that barb. (Where’s Cher when you need her?) The movie would be more interesting with some of that “Devil Wears Prada” venom, whereas Dion comes off … well, decent. Hence, the self-help vibe.

There’s not much chemistry between Chopra Jonas and Heughan — and how could there be, since they’re stuck in a one-way conversation for half the movie? Plus, Mira’s texts are just so sad. At one point, after Rob spends the night, Mira wakes up to hear him talking with her younger sister Suzy (Sofia Barclay), and it seems for a second that perhaps he’s found a better match — someone with the capacity to smile. But Mira must surely find a way to love again, and there seems to be potential, if they can just get past their One Big Secret, which will require an absurdly unprofessional demonstration of love on Rob’s part.

Again, that’s where love guru Dion comes in handy, playing a barely fictionalized version of herself as she shares details from her real-life relationship with Angélil. Though we see Dion’s strong survivor side, her vulnerability remains one of her most endearing assets — the very same quality that makes her persona too much for some people to take. “Love Again” was never intended for the skeptics, whereas admirers will appreciate the comeback aspect of her first film role. It’s a big-screen romance that aspires to making fans feel the way Dion’s music does, like their hearts can go on.

Reviewed at Screening Room, Culver City, Calif., May 4, 2023. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 104 MIN.

  • Production: A Sony release of a Screen Gems presentation, in association with 2.0 Entertainment, of a Thunder Road Films production. Producers: Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Esther Hornstein. Executive producers: Doug Belgrad, Sophie Cassidy, Louise Killin, Jonathan Fuhrman, Celine Dion, Dave Platel, Denis Savage.
  • Crew: Director, writer: Jim Strouse, based on the motion picture “Text for You” (“SMS für Dich”), based on the novel by Sofie Cramer and written by Andrea Wilson, Malte Welding, Karoline Herfurth, Sophie Kluge, Anike Decker. Camera: Andrew Dunn. Editor: Jesse Gordon. Music: Keegan DeWitt.
  • With: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Celine Dion, Russell Tovey, Steve Oram, Arinzé Kene, Lydia West, Sofia Barclay, Celia Imrie, Omid Djalili.

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Sam Heughan and Céline Dion in Love Again

Love Again review – Céline Dion is the high note of sappy romcom

A film about love after grief starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas works better as a vehicle for the singer than as a romance

T here is something about Céline Dion that melts the stoniest of hearts. The French-Canadian singer, arguably the queen of the power ballad, is over the top, completely unsubtle, soaring against the boundaries of taste. She is also cheekily sincere, a true weirdo and so committed to the bit that she makes extreme cheesiness fun.

Such is the primary draw of Love Again, the big-screen adaptation of the German novel Text For You by Sofie Cramer, which packages a throwback romcom starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Outlander’s Sam Heughan as a Céline tribute vehicle. And it is, unsurprisingly, the main payoff of actually watching the movie, which marks the 55-year-old singer’s first feature film role (as herself, of course). Dion, also an executive producer, is responsible for a conservative 80% of the film’s comedy and the bulk of its charm.

Which is tough when the majority of the movie, written and directed by Jim Strouse (The Incredible Jessica James), is about two thinly sketched characters in a very strange situation, albeit one ripe for tear-jerking. We meet Chopra Jonas’s Mira in a New York coffee shop, deeply in love with her boyfriend John (Arinzé Kene) and working on her next children’s book illustration. But then she witnesses his death at the hands of a drunk driver through the window. (Strouse keeps the camera on Chopra Jonas’s face, but it’s still too much, and not in the extra Céline way.)

This starts things off on a bum note, to say the least, and despite several sensitive moments depicting the frayed edges and primal instincts of grief (reaching for any smell of them, for example), the film never really recovers from it. But, two years into her loss, Mira must move on. Coaxed into returning to the city by her chipper younger sister Suzy (Sofia Barclay, whose lived-in encouragement picks up the rest of Dion’s comedy slack), a grief-stricken Mira begins to put herself out there – as in, a sub-par date with a Midtown bro hammily played by Chopra Jonas’s real-life husband Nick Jonas. To cope, Mira begins texting her raw feelings to John’s old number, now recommissioned as a work phone to Rob Burns (Heughan, Scottish accent intact), a glum music critic reeling from a broken engagement.

Two things break Rob’s iciness: heartrending text messages from a mysterious person he soon deduces to be the gorgeous Mira, and an assignment to profile Céline Dion as she embarks on her first tour since the death of her husband/manager Réné Angélil from cancer. The former is a a decently realistic and moving premise (I would probably do something similar) given a never un-creepy twist. (Although, to be fair, comparing Rob’s love for a stranger in a one-sided text relationship to falling for her much-older manager on the eve of the Eurovision Song Contest, as Céline does in a scene that left my mouth open, is gonzo logic befitting of the singer.) The latter is a great set-up, both for slipping in actual Céline songs, music videos and iconography and for witnessing Dion hand-act as a subject who turns every interview into a therapy session.

Céline has plenty to say about love being crazy, though Rob’s interpretation of it never feels right; courting a woman while having secretly read her texts to her dead boyfriend is a tough sell. (“This is a big problem,” Céline declares, correctly.) Chopra Jonas and Heughan have decent chemistry or, more accurately, the professionalism and experience to deliver surface-level banter with precise-enough timing to seem movie-level realistic. But unfortunately, only Dion can deliver this combination of cheese, camp, unabashed earnestness and exaggerated sentimentality. On everyone else, it feels effortful and a little cringe, as when a shirtless Heughan belts It’s All Coming Back to Me Now in the shower or when Chopra Jonas flirts via Rob’s primary language (basketball).

As it should, Love Again does conjure some genuine emotion – it’s hard not to feel something watching Mira read through old texts with John to Dion’s music. And it offers some treats for fans of the singer: a shot of Céline shedding a single tear while looking moved, a moment of Céline sing-talking, a chance for her to deliver the line “OK, Mr Underwear” and have it make sense in context. I appreciate Love Again for this far more than I appreciate its merits as a romcom, which it meets in fits and starts consistently hampered by the presence of cheap-looking text on screen (at this point, I would rather read a phone over someone’s shoulder).

The resolution is, of course, daft, even more so because Rob’s personality never extends beyond vaguely liking music, basketball and Mira, and it’s never clear why Mira would decide to forgive such a transgression. No matter – “I don’t really care if you and Rob get together,” Céline tells Mira over the phone, once again capturing our feelings in words. As a tribute to the singer, the frontrunner remains Aline, the utterly bonkers , unauthorized biopic by French actor Valérie Lemercier . But Love Again, by ceding some space to the Queen of Feelings, has moments that play. I can’t say it was good, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

Love Again is out in US cinemas now and in the UK on 12 May

  • Céline Dion
  • Priyanka Chopra
  • Romance films
  • Comedy films

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Girl meets creepy boy in off-putting rom-com ‘Love Again’

Man exploits a texting glitch to deceive a grieving widow, and all with the help of celine dion..

DF_06698_r.jpg

The romance of Rob (Sam Heughan) and Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) lacks spark in “Love Again.”

Screen Gems

Blocked and Reported as Ludicrous Froth.

I’m not going to say the ridiculous and off-putting romantic text-message dramedy “Love Again” is the worst movie of the year, but it might be the most implausible film I’ve seen so far in 2023, and I’m not necessarily excluding “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Cocaine Bear” and “65” from the competition.

This is one of those movies that never eschews the opportunity to embrace a rom-com cliché, even as it asks us to empathize with a male lead who behaves in such a selfish, immature and borderline cruel manner that we’re kind of rooting for a bus every time this guy crosses the street. I mean, not really, but at the very least he should be sent to Rom-Com Jail for being the worst.

“Love Again” a remake of the German film “SMS für Dich (SMS for You),” which was based on a 2009 novel by Sofie Cramer, kicks off with Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ Mira at a coffee shop, where she cuddles and kisses and coos and is lost in love with her dreamy boyfriend John (Arinzé Kene)—who then proceeds to walk outside and get run over by a drunk driver right in front of Mira’s eyes (but not ours, thanks be the tastemakers), I kid you not. Just like that, John is dead dead dead.

We flash forward the obligatory two years, with Mira just starting to get back on her feet, with the encouragement of her sassy, energetic, bright-light younger sister Suzy (Sofia Barclay). We have no idea what Suzy does or what her life is about, because she exists in this movie for the sole purpose of supporting Mira, encouraging Mira, cheering on Mira.

Now let’s meet Rob Burns (Sam Heughan from “Outlander”), who looks a bit like Tom Brady and works as a music critic at the New York Chronicle, which apparently is a newspaper, though the newsroom looks more like the home base of a trendy and quite successful tech start-up. At times there appear to be only a handful of people working there, including Rob’s colleagues Billy (Russell Tovey) and Lisa (Lydia West), who, like Suzy, are just in this movie to comment on Rob’s life and cheer him on, what with Rob having been dumped just before he was to be married.

Mira, who writes successful children’s books about a caterpillar who refuses to leave the cocoon and doesn’t want to become a butterfly (just like Mira!), begins texting her dead boyfriend John’s old number every night, telling him about her day but mostly writing poetic tributes to their love. But get this: Rob has just been given a new work phone, and he has … John’s old number! Not only that, when Rob interviews Celine Dion (played by Celine Dion), it turns into a therapy session in which Celine talks about the loss of her husband and encourages Rob to pursue a connection with whoever this Mira person might be. Rob Googles Mira, and it takes only a few clicks for him to learn about her dead boyfriend, and realize Mira is sending those texts to her lost love.

LA_FP_068_r.jpg

Celine Dion plays Celine Dion, encouraging Rob’s duplicity.

Now then. What is the only reasonable, rational, sensible, kind thing to do? That’s right: Rob should text Mira and let her know John’s old number has been reassigned to him, and he wishes her the best, and that would be that. But nooooooooo! Rob rationalizes to his friends that he can’t text Mira because he doesn’t want to embarrass her, and he proceeds to court her, woo her, charm her and go to bed with her, all without revealing what he knows. If that’s not bad enough, he persuades Celine Dion to meet with Mira and hire her to design Celine’s tour poster, so now Celine is in on the ruse! WHAT.

You can probably guess the next series of developments, and let’s just say those guesses wouldn’t be far off. “Love Again” plays out like some ungainly melding of “You’ve Got Mail” and the Gwyneth Paltrow-Ben Affleck plane crash movie “Bounce,” but using only the parts from those fine films that didn’t work. Priyanka Chopra Jonas remains a luminous onscreen presence and her Mira is lovely and likable, but there’s a distinct lack of a spark in the romance with Sam Heughan, who’s about as exciting as two slices of white bread just before they pop from the toaster. Then again, it’s not really Heughan’s fault he’s saddled with playing a brooding nincompoop who’s very much a bounder.

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‘Love Again’: Celine Dion Deserves Better Than This Lame Romcom

By Miles Klee

The first time Celine Dion shows up as herself in the mostly predictable romcom Love Again , she’s handing down icy answers to a room full of reporters asking inane questions about her upcoming concert tour. But our leading man, Rob ( Sam Heughan ), music critic for the fictional New York Chronicle , is distracted by some unusual messages he’s been receiving from a mystery texter. Dion chides him for having his phone on and inquires as to whether he’s going to ask her something. Rob fumbles, then pressures the singer to explain some of her esoteric lyrics about love.

“You obviously know nothing about it,” Dion replies. “What?” Rob says. “Love,” Dion answers, with perfect poise, to snickers from the rest of the press pool (and Rob’s acute embarrassment).

Rob’s mystery texter, you see, is an artist and children’s book author named Mira ( Priyanka Chopra Jonas ), who has yet to move on after losing the love of her life in a tragic accident. The film opens with their last, affectionate moments together in a café before her boyfriend steps out, and — in an unforgivable twist — is run down by a drunk driver before Mira’s very eyes. At least we only see her stunned reaction as opposed to the carnage itself, but the sequence is still a strong argument for subtlety in depicting trauma. It doesn’t help that her beau is a Black man, which means his abrupt and immediate death echoes an unpleasant trope from horror movies .

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You already know the rest, right down to the Nick Jonas cameo, and Love Again plays out against the backdrop of a New York that is very much Sex and the City by way of bog-standard Netflix offerings: the apartments and offices are far too luxurious, the side characters are boilerplate sarcastic, the entire plot unfolds on phone screens (despite some jabs at dating apps), and Rob’s editor gives him a whole month to do nothing but blow off the Celine Dion profile he’s been assigned. Though even that is slightly more plausible than his depiction of a Brit who actively roots for the Knicks .

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‘Love Again’: Critics and audiences clash over Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan rom-com

  • May 11, 2023 3:00PM

Love Again

On May 5, 2023, Sony Pictures released “ Love Again ” starring Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in the romantic comedy. A young woman (Chopra Jonas) tries to ease the pain of her fiancé’s death by sending romantic texts to his old cell phone number, and forms a connection with the man the number has been reassigned to (Heughan). The ensemble cast includes Grammy winner Celine Dion , Russell Tovey , Steve Oram , Omid Djalili , and Lydia West .

While critics have widely panned the film, landing it at a paltry 22% on Rotten Tomatoes from 23 reviews, audiences are swooning, with over 250 everyday movie-goers putting it at a 92% fresh audience score. So what’s causing this clash? Read our full review round-up below.

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Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru praises the film, noting, “Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan have palpable chemistry which helps you to want Mira and Rob to end up together. Chemistry is everything in a romcom, so kudos to the casting director and Jim Strouse for selecting romantic leads who are very charismatic. The supporting actors and actresses are also terrific including Celia Imrie , who makes the most out of her few scenes, Omid Djalili, and Steve Oram who has a hilarious scene as Rob’s editor. Then there’s the wonderful music by Celine Dion including some of her new songs. At a running time of 1 hour and 44 minutes, ‘Love Again’ is a heartwarming, tender and witty romantic comedy. If you enjoy 90’s romcoms like ‘You’ve Got Mail’ and ‘While You Were Sleeping,’ you’ll probably enjoy ‘Love Again,’ too.”

Mark Dujsik of Mark Reviews Movies notes, “So many things go wrong with ‘Love Again,’ almost immediately from the start, that it’s quite the struggle to figure out if anything actually goes right within this wholly predictable and occasionally creepy attempt at a romantic story. There’s at least a little bit of chemistry between the two leads, and while that would usually be something, it’s beside the point in this movie. The setup of the central relationship is simply too contrived and discomforting to care if the actors seem as if they’re having fun playing at falling in love.”

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Travis Hopson of Punch Drunk Critics writes, “Let me preface this by saying that I’m a big fan of writer/director James C. Strouse. Two of his previous films, ‘The Incredible Jessica James’ and ‘People Places Things,’ both featuring Jessica Williams , are wonderful blends of humor and heart about the way that love can sneak up on you when least expected. His latest, the wildly absurd, Celine Dion worship spectacle ‘Love Again’ sorta follows the same idea. Um, love definitely comes out of nowhere, that’s for sure. It’s a film so bizarre in so many ways that you almost want to like it for being so strange, and for giving us the undeniably stunning sight of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan in a game of pick-up basketball.”

Despite those tepid, or even scathing reviews, audiences are loving the film. A few verified ticket buyers wrote:

“I laughed. I cried. It’s not going to win any academy awards but it was a fun rom-com movie to see. My gal-pal and I both enjoyed it and it’s a movie I might even consider seeing a second time with my husband.” – Bev

“Fun romantic escape. Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas played with our hearts from cynical, resignation, to hopeful, you just wanted to cheer them on. And Celine as love guru – using her lyrics says it all. Go see ‘Love Again’ to lift your spirits.” – V

“This was such a good movie. I really enjoyed it. It even made me cry. Definitely a movie for saps who love a good romance movie.” – Ashley

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Music soars in so-so romcom about how a heart will go on.

Love Again Movie Poster: Priyanka Chopra Jonas embraces Sam Heughan against a New York City backdrop

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Lots of positive messages about love: what it take

Mira and her first love, John, have an aspirationa

Main character Mira (Indian actor Priyanka Chopra

Mira is mourning the death of her fiancé after see

Romantic plot. Kissing. One character propositions

Strong language includes "a--holes," "d--khead," "

Skittles are positively and prominently featured,

Alcohol is verbally and visually identified as a p

Parents need to know that Love Again is a romantic comedy about finding love after loss; it's based on the book Text for You by Sofie Cramer. Singer Céline Dion co-stars as herself, using her music and personal experiences to guide main characters Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Rob (Sam Heughan) on…

Positive Messages

Lots of positive messages about love: what it takes to fall in love, love's enduring power, love being what gets us through life's messy and painful moments, the power of finding love after loss.

Positive Role Models

Mira and her first love, John, have an aspirational romance. Mira and Rob have idyllic creative professions: Mira is a successful children's author, and Rob is a newspaper music critic. It's Rob's curiosity, which turns into compassion, that sparks his romance with Mira -- although, through a different lens, his actions could be seen as verging on stalking. Céline Dion plays herself and shares stories from her life and marriage.

Diverse Representations

Main character Mira (Indian actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is Indian. Her late first love, John (Nigerian-born Arinzé Kene), is Black, as is Lisa (Irish Montserratian actor Lydia West), the co-worker/confidant of male lead Rob (White actor Sam Heughan). Rob's colleague and best friend is gay, which falls into romcom-stereotype territory -- although it does usually involve the leading lady's BFF, rather than the leading man's. Co-star Céline Dion is famously French Canadian. A White supporting character comes from an economically disadvantaged background. Mira's publisher is a woman who's depicted as kind and patient, but, if necessary, cut-throat.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Mira is mourning the death of her fiancé after seeing him getting fatally hit by a car (there's a close-up on her reaction as it happens). One push/punch given in startled self-defense.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Romantic plot. Kissing. One character propositions the person she's been dating; they kiss, and then the scene cuts to the next morning, when they're lying in bed together, sensitive body parts hidden by sheets. Bare male chests. Banter about "getting laid" or "getting that D."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Strong language includes "a--holes," "d--khead," "screwed," "s--t," "shut up," and "that sucks." "God" used as an exclamation. Sexual slang: "get laid," "smash," and "get that D!"

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Skittles are positively and prominently featured, indicating likely product placement. Attention to shoe brands, with Nike Air Jordans treated with some reverence. Dell logo half obscured but identifiable. Céline Dion's music is heavily featured.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Alcohol is verbally and visually identified as a path to interaction: Wine to talk to the dead (you have to see the movie to understand), margaritas on a first date, "champagne in a can" for a date in the park, and a bottle of bourbon in a breakup.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Love Again is a romantic comedy about finding love after loss; it's based on the book Text for You by Sofie Cramer. Singer Céline Dion co-stars as herself, using her music and personal experiences to guide main characters Mira ( Priyanka Chopra Jonas ) and Rob ( Sam Heughan) on their emotional journey. Romance is core to the story: There's kissing, and supporting characters make blunt references to pursuing casual sex ("we're going to smash," "I'm getting laid," and "get the D!"). But their crass attitude actually makes it more meaningful when Mira and Rob thoughtfully decide to become intimate. (After they do, the scene cuts to the morning after, with them lying under the covers, only backs and shoulders shown.) Mira sees her boyfriend get fatally hit by a car. Characters drink, and language includes "d--khead," "s--t," and more. While there are lots of positive messages about the power of love, some viewers may be put off by the way that Rob tracks Mira down using the information in her texts. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Love Again Movie: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, wearing a green wrap dress, laughs while offering a taste of the dish she's cooking to Sam Heughan

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What's the Story?

Two years after the death of her boyfriend, John (Arinzé Kene), children's book author Mira Ray ( Priyanka Chopra Jonas ) is still mired in grief, unable to move forward with her life. To work through her feelings, she starts texting them to John's old number, unaware that it's been reassigned to Rob ( Sam Heughan) , a music critic at the New York Chronicle . Céline Dion co-stars as a guardian angel-like version of herself, using her music and her own experiences of love and loss to guide Mira and Rob. (And, in a cute wink, Chopra Jonas' real-life husband, Nick Jonas , humorously pops in as a bad date.)

Is It Any Good?

It may inspire more hanky use than hilarity, but, as a heart grabber, this Céline Dion-powered musical romance dramedy works. Don't misunderstand: There's plenty to clog the pipes. Chopra Jonas is so electric with Kene and her real-life husband, Nick Jonas, that her mismatch with Heughan becomes impossible to ignore. And New York is treated like a character in the story ... which makes the fact that it clearly wasn't filmed in the Big Apple distracting (and then there's the fact that most of the cast is from the United Kingdom, and some are trying to disguise their accents).

But in a world in which movies like Mamma Mia! , Yesterday , and Blinded by the Light have already explored ways of making a movie inspired by a single artist or group's music, a romance that co-stars Dion as a sort of guardian angel makes its own sense. The film concept is strong, the dialogue is good, and the music is amazing. Viewers may well find themselves singing, laughing, and crying along to Dion's ballads -- and realizing anew that while great music helps us through challenges, the soundtrack of our lives is love.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Love Again 's use of Céline Dion and her music and how that compares to other movies you've seen in which a single artist or group's music is used to tell a story. Do you like that concept? Why, or why not?

Why is music so often powerfully tied to our emotions? How can song lyrics be interpreted differently depending on your situation and mood?

How does Rob's curiosity lead to his finding love? How did this character trait conflict with his integrity , and how do you think you would have handled the situation? Do you think Rob's behavior -- tracking down the person who's sending him texts -- could be considered stalking? How would you feel if you were Mira?

Did you spot anything that looked like product placement? When you see characters or actors using a product or wearing a brand, does it affect your buying choices?

A lot of love advice is given throughout the film. What stuck with you?

Movie Details

  • In theaters : May 5, 2023
  • On DVD or streaming : May 23, 2023
  • Cast : Priyanka Chopra , Sam Heughan , Céline Dion
  • Director : Jim Strouse
  • Inclusion Information : Female actors
  • Studio : Sony Pictures
  • Genre : Romance
  • Topics : Book Characters , Brothers and Sisters , Music and Sing-Along
  • Character Strengths : Curiosity
  • Run time : 104 minutes
  • MPAA rating : PG-13
  • MPAA explanation : some sexual material and some strong language
  • Last updated : September 12, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Love Again Review

Love Again

It’s bold to assume the audience of your Hollywood romcom is familiar with the opera  Orpheus And Eurydice  by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The Orpheus myth has inspired some of the greatest filmmakers of the past century, from Jean Cocteau to Céline Sciamma. To that lofty pantheon we must now add James C. Strouse, writer and director of  Love Again . Or rather Karoline Herfurth, whose 2016 film  SMS für Dich  (based on a novel by Sofie Cramer), inspired it. Perhaps German cinemagoers are all Gluck aficionados.

movie review for love again

Love Again , believe it or not, mirrors the opera beautifully. After children’s book illustrator Mira Ray ( Priyanka Chopra Jonas ) loses her boyfriend in a car accident, she continues to text her dead lover’s phone as a channel for her grief. His mobile is recycled and used as the work phone of music critic Rob Burns ( Sam Heughan ), who falls in love with Mira through her melancholic poetry. Mira reveals her adoration for  Orpheus And Eurydice , currently playing in New York, and Rob attends every performance to stage an impromptu meet-cute.

They strike up a romance, only for Mira to find her texts on Rob’s phone. Like Orpheus turning to face Eurydice, which condemns her to Hades forever, Mira disappears from Rob’s life. But unlike the Orpheus myth, Gluck’s opera has the cupid-like Amore revive Eurydice after taking pity on Orpheus — and who better to embody Amore in this adaptation than Canadian diva Celine Dion, appearing as herself, to guide Rob through the nine circles of Hell? It’s a peculiar sort of genius.

To this bizarre concoction add a smattering of British stars, including Russell Tovey , Lydia West, and Celia Imrie , doing shaky American accents, and that’s  Love Again . It’s roughly made, suffocated by on-screen text messages and a heavy violin score by Keegan DeWitt out of tune with the Gluck arias and Dion ballads. But when a movie moves with such ease from ‘Che farò senza Eurydice?’ to ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’, one can only respond with bemused respect.

The Silver Petticoat Review

‘Love Again’ Movie Review: A Cute Rom-Com With Celine Dion

The new romantic comedy stars Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

'Love Again' Movie Review A Cute Rom-Com With Celine Dion pinterest image

Love Again  is like a PG-13 Hallmark Channel movie – and is about as far-fetched as a rom-com gets.

Love Again Review Featured image of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan in a romantic embrace.

Through cynical eyes (just scroll down  Rotten Tomatoes ), the  Love Again  movie is about a creepy guy taking advantage of a grieving woman using many rom-com tropes.

But if you approach the film uncynically, accept the story’s sweetness, and embrace romance unabashedly , you’ll likely enjoy the ride as much as I did – especially for the likable actors (Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and new original songs from Céline Dion (who also stars).

LOVE AGAIN  THE MOVIE – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Before going into my  Love Again  review, I gathered everything you need to know about the new romantic comedy: from the official synopsis to the movie’s cast, the soundtrack, and the trailer.

Love Again  Official Synopsis: 

From Sony Pictures :

What if a random text message led to the love of your life? In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, Mira Ray sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number…not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns’ 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. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan and Celine Dion and featuring multiple new songs from Dion, Love Again, written for the screen and directed by Jim Strouse, is only in theaters May 5, 2023.

Love Again  Movie Cast

Love Again movie still of couple cooking

Love Again  includes a fascinating cast led by Sam Heughan ( Outlander ) and Priyanka Chopra Jonas ( Citadel ), with supporting roles from Céline Dion, Russell Tovey ( Being Human ), Nick Jonas, Celia Imrie, and more.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas stars as children’s book illustrator Mira Ray, a grieving young woman, sending text messages to her deceased boyfriend.

RELATED: The Folklore of Outlander: Witches, Stone Circles, and More

Sam Heughan plays the male lead, Rob Burns (a clear nod to the Scottish poet Robert Burns), a music critic writing a profile piece on Céline Dion – who convinces him of the power of love and taking chances. He starts receiving Mira’s texts and falls in love with her.

Céline Dion makes her feature film debut playing a fictional version of herself – telling of her romantic love story with René Angélil and working as the fairy godmother of sorts in the film.

The rest of the supporting actors include:

  • Sofia Barclay as Mira’s younger sister, Suzy Ray.
  • Russell Tovey as Billy Brooks – Rob’s co-worker and best friend. 
  • Lydia West as Lisa Scott – Another co-worker of Rob’s.
  • Steve Oram as Richard Hughes – Rob’s boss.
  • Nick Jonas as Joel – A date Mira meets through a dating app. 
  • Celia Imrie as Gina Valentine – Mira’s publisher.
  • Arinzé Kene as John – Mira’s deceased boyfriend, John.
  • Omid Djalili as Mohsen – A family friend of Mira.

Love Again  Soundtrack Featuring Céline Dion

Celine Dion on stage in Love Again

The soundtrack from the movie features five new songs from Céline Dion – including the featured song, “Love Again!” Plus, familiar favorites like “All By Myself,” “It’s All Coming Back to Me,” and more.

If you’re a Céline fan, this is a film you can’t miss – if only for the amazing soundtrack. The new songs are lovely.

Love Again  Film Trailer

LOVE AGAIN  REVIEW

Love Again  is a light-hearted romance movie that won’t win any awards (not that it’s trying to) but will win over the hearts of romantics everywhere.

It’s a nice bit of fluff escapism set in New York City that fully embraces what it is: a romantic comedy fantasy following rom-com trope after trope with a HEA as its cherry on top.

Love Again  is a remake of the 2016 German film  SMS für Dich  and is also based on the 2009 novel by Sofie Cramer. And while I can’t compare this movie to the original inspirations since I haven’t read the book or seen the German adaptation, it sounds like the American remake followed the heart of the original story without significant deviations.

The story follows Mira Ray after the tragic loss of her fiancé. Two years after his passing, she finds solace in sending heartfelt, confessional texts to his old cell phone number.

Little does she know that the number has been reassigned to Rob Burns, a dedicated music critic/media journalist. He quickly becomes enamored by the sincerity and emotion conveyed in Mira’s messages and sets out to meet her in person.

RELATED: The Lost City Movie Review: The New Rom-Com is Funny and Fantastic

When assigned to write a profile piece on Céline Dion, he enlists Céline’s help to win Mira’s heart. But what if Mira finds out the truth about the text messages? Will Mira and Rob find love together? Or will they break apart because he didn’t tell her the whole story from the beginning?

Thus, the premise of  Love Again . It is a rom-com about the transformative power of love and connection in the digital age – albeit with a heavy-handed dosage of saccharine sweetness.

The Romance

Love Again publicity still of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan about to kiss.

The romance on the surface of the story sounds weird. A guy reads personal texts without revealing he’s receiving them and then sets out to find this woman in person. It could be seen as a bit stalker-like.

But it’s  Outlander’s  Sam Heughan, with his natural accent showcasing all his charm and adorable qualities, playing a likable, good guy. So, if you accept that this story is more fantasy than reality and ultimately go on to accept the premise in this rom-com world, it’s really fun and endearing to watch.

Expectations going in are key. As I said, the only way to enjoy this movie is without cynicism.

The movie has numerous entertaining romantic moments and good chemistry between Chopra Jonas and Heughan – although more character development would have been nice. As would a wittier script and actual comedic moments.

But the love story itself is entertaining and worth watching.

Céline Dion 

Sam Heughan and Celine Dion in Love Again Movie Still

As for Ms. Dion, she does a fantastic job in the film – proving she’s a talented actress on top of her phenomenal singing abilities.

She portrays a fictionalized version of herself – adding to the authenticity – revealing more about the real-life love story between her and her husband – while also playing matchmaker in the film.

It’s an absolute joy to watch Dion’s performance – and her new original songs are great, too. 

Overall Thoughts

While there isn’t much comedy in this rom-com (a continuing problem in the genre), it’s a sweet treat for rom-com fans everywhere looking to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

And if you enjoyed romantic comedies and movies like  Return to Me , You’ve Got Mail , or  P.S. I Love You  and ALSO (also is key) love Hallmark romances, this is the movie for you. It’s a middle-of-the-road romance film with decent directing and a lovely script – but nothing overly memorable.

Still, I enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone wanting to watch a Hallmark-type film with a little more sensuality.

So, take in the spoonful of sugar and embrace the sweetness of  Love Again , a heartwarming romantic comedy that explores the serendipitous power of love and technology.  

Love Again  Movie: Where to Watch

The  Love Again  movie premiered on Netflix on September 2, 2023, and is currently available exclusively on the streaming site. You can also rent or buy the film digitally or on DVD.

Content Note:  PG-13 for brief, strong language, suggestive content, and implied sensuality.

Have you watched  Love Again ? Do you agree with my review? What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments!

Three and a half corsets rating

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Amber works as a writer and digital publisher full-time and fell in love with stories and imagination at an early age. She has a Humanities and Film Degree from BYU, co-created The Silver Petticoat Review, contributed as a writer to various magazines, and has an MS in Publishing from Pace University, where she received the Publishing Award of Excellence and wrote her thesis on transmedia, Jane Austen, and the romance genre. Her ultimate dreams are publishing books, writing and producing movies, traveling around the world, and forming a creative village of talented storytellers trying to change the world through art.

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movie review for love again

  • DVD & Streaming
  • Comedy , Romance

Content Caution

Love Again 2023

In Theaters

  • May 5, 2023
  • Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Mira Ray; Sam Heughan as Rob Burns; Sofia Barclay as Suzy Ray; Céline Dion as herself; Russell Tovey as Billy Brooks; Lydia West as Lisa Scott

Home Release Date

  • May 23, 2023
  • Jim Strouse

Distributor

  • Sony Pictures

Movie Review

Mira isn’t sure she’ll ever be able to fall in love again. What she had with her last boyfriend, John, was pretty perfect. They were on the verge of that illusive happily ever after that people say never happens these days. But in their case, it didn’t. John was taken in an accident with a drunk driver.

How do you bounce back from that?

The fact is, you don’t. Or at least, Mira hasn’t. And everything in her life has suffered in the two years since John’s tragic death. She used to be a very successful children’s book author and artist. But now all her formerly happy, rainbow-colored caterpillars are sad, weeping and gray. That doesn’t sell kids’ books.

Mira’s sister and friends have tried to pull her out of her grief. But their well-meaning efforts haven’t helped. Then Mira decides to give one small bit of advice a try. A good friend dealing with his own tragic loss suggests that he makes it through by sitting down with a glass of wine and sharing his thoughts with an empty chair representing his deceased wife. It helps him talk things out. Even vent sometimes.

When Mira tries this wine-and-vent ritual, however, she feels silly. It’s not her. But then an idea hits her: She could also text her thoughts and feelings. She and John used to do that all the time when he was out of town.

But have you ever wondered what happens to a phone number once its former user passes away? That’s right: It’s eventually given to someone new. And in this case that new someone is a guy named Rob.

Rob has had a few love issues of his own. His fiancée walked out on him just a week before their wedding. And that’s left him a bit wrung out and romantically gun-shy, too. But then, out of the blue, his new work phone begins receiving texts from an unknown number. Beautiful texts. Texts filled with poetic thoughts about loss and grief and love. Texts that swirl before Rob’s eyes with the grace of a ballet dancer. They lift him. They heal him.

Is it possible, do you think, that you can fall in love with someone simply by reading their thoughts and feelings?

Rob’s coworkers assure him the words are likely a scam, or a ploy, or maybe the blatherings of a creepy old grandmother lurking out there in the digital ether somewhere. But Rob is certain that none of those theories are true. These have to be heartfelt missives from someone very, very special.

If he’s correct, though, what now? How do you track down someone and “accidentally” meet them without letting on that you’ve been peeking in on their most intimate thoughts?

Ah, that’s stuff right out of a movie, right?

Positive Elements

Amid this film’s typical (and at times silly) rom-com conventions, it earnestly suggests that a tragic loss doesn’t have to derail someone’s life. Singer Céline Dion shows up as a character here to declare that truth to Rob (who’s a music critic). She uses her own story of love and loss as an illustration.

Rob and Mira also tend to be conservative about their approach to a relationship. Even though others around them advocate simply getting sex whenever and wherever its available, Rob and Mira focus on connecting with each other and slowly peeling back the layers of their thoughts and feelings about life and love.

Spiritual Elements

The closest thing to addressing spirituality is Céline Dion’s advice that Rob must open himself to the “Universe,” in a vaguely divine kind of way, to let good things rush in.

Though more imaginary than physical, Mira has a short conversation to say goodbye to her deceased boyfriend late in the film.

Sexual Content

Mira’s sister, Suzy, repeatedly encourages her to get back out on the dating scene and suggestively says she needs to “get the d.” In fact, she signs Mira up for a dating app and shows her pics of guys (mostly all ripped and shirtless). The only guy that Mira dates from that app is a rather vacuous gym-rat type who instantly starts passionately making out with her once they get in a cab together. She tries to slow things down. But when he realizes that he isn’t going to get sex, he quickly pulls out his phone to try and connect with another date.

Rob’s gay coworker Billy is much the same. He accompanies Rob to a bar as an act of support. But then he connects with a handsome guy there who he declares he’ll “smash” later that evening.

After a while, Rob and Mira do, predictably, end up in bed. We see them the next morning. He’s lounging shirtless and she is covered only by a sheet. We also see Rob from the waist up showering.

Mira wears some cleavage-baring T-shirts. Some of her texts mention being naked with the man she loves. Rob and Mira kiss passionately on several occasions.

Céline Dion tells a story about a kiss that unlocked secret feelings inside her.

Violent Content

Mira’s boyfriend, John, is killed in a car accident. We see Mira’s reaction to the accident rather than the accident itself.

Crude or Profane Language

There’s one f-word and some 10 s-words in the dialogue, along with one or two uses each of the words “h—” and “a–hole.” Someone say that the “gods are d-cks” God’s name is misused several times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Mira and her sister drink beer while playing a game. And later we see Mira with glasses of wine and also hard liquor. She also drinks a margarita with a date at a restaurant. For his part, Rob drinks beer on a couple occasions and has a glass of Scotch at a bar. Other patrons at a restaurant and a bar drink alcohol of various types.

Other Negative Elements

Rob doesn’t exactly lie to Mira, but he does fail to tell her the whole truth. And that failure comes back to plague him.

Romantic comedies generally start with a simple central conceit, a fanciful meet-cute that brings an unlikely couple together. Then good rom-coms springboard that unlikely folderol into something entertainingly smile worthy.

Love Again has its own cute conceit. It has an attractive couple to sprinkle loving fairy dust over. It even injects lots of Céline Dion (her music and the singer herself) into the action to give things a nostalgic love song vibe.

But somebody forgot the springboard.

And that leaves us with a story that feels incredibly predictable. No twists, no turns. No surprises, no what ifs. If it gives you anything , it might make you a tad sentimental. Leaving you to wistfully think of those good clean and upright rom-coms you remember so fondly.

Content-wise, Love Again drives right down middle of the road. It’s got some sexual commentary from the protagonists’ family and friends. And it adds a completely pointless f-bomb and a jump-into-bed scene to satisfy some nebulous Hollywood formula for a PG-13 romance.

That said, this movie doesn’t push the bounds of its rating as far as many others might these days. Which is to say, it’s not as problematic as it could have been. But that’s faint praise, really, in this movie that feels like a glass half-full at best, and perhaps half-empty at worst, romantic comedy.

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After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Movie Review – Love Again (2023)

May 12, 2023 by admin

Love Again , 2023.

Directed by Jim Strouse. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, and Céline Dion.

A young woman tries to ease the pain of her fiancé’s death by sending romantic texts to his old cell phone number and forms a connection with the man the number has been reassigned to.

If you think Love Again follows a predictable plot with cheesy clichés that go hand in hand with most rom-coms, then you’d be correct with your assessment. This, however, is not meant to be a dig, as the formulaic overused approach resonates with viewers and is what makes the genre so loved by many.

And though Jim Strouse’s modern-day You’ve Got Mail wannabe attempts to create an inevitable meet-cute over a more technologically advanced medium — seeing as using email to find the love of your life is now considered a bit dated — Love Again is so outlandish that it creates an instant disconnect that no other aspects of the film can make up for.

Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) works on her latest children’s book illustration in a local café. She is later joined by her boyfriend, John (Arinze Kene), who stops by for a quick interaction with the love of his life. After leaving the establishment, he is struck and killed by a drunk driver, though the audience doesn’t witness the tragedy. Instead, an awkward camera close-up captures Mira’s detached reaction to the event as she watches through the window without so much as flinching.

A two-year flashforward reveals that the heroine still struggles with her loss. She has moved back to her parent’s home in the suburbs, fleeing from the apartment she shared with her sister in the city, as remaining in the location where her former lover passed away is too painful.

To battle her grief, she texts sentimental messages to John’s old phone number to bring herself comfort. However, his digits have been reassigned to Rob (Sam Heughan), a New York movie critic jaded after his ex-fiancé left him at the altar. Even though he is not the intended text recipient, his curiosity surrounding the woman at the other end of the one-way conversation consumes him.

Though the circumstances in which Rob and Mira meet are unrealistic, one could hope that Love Again would provide compelling performances and dynamic characters that might make viewers more forgiving of the material. Regrettably, we aren’t given either of those things, and the pair’s romance is watered down further by a lack of chemistry between Heughan and Chopra Jonas.

While Heughan certainly looks the part, Rob’s personality is about as thrilling as watching paint dry, and you can’t help but wonder why Mira is drawn to someone so inept of depth in the first place. Considering Rob is the male lead, his role is uninspiring and feels more like an afterthought than a point of focus. Chopra Jonas brings some relatability to Mira through her sorrow. However, the character is bland and forgettable, unlike other captivating female leads of the same genre.

Even when Mira and Rob are introduced, their first interaction is an awkward, anticlimactic snooze fest. But, ironically, their best-acted scenes are those that do not involve each other. Instead, Chopra Jonas excels in portraying a grief-stricken woman who has lost her way after John’s devastating demise, and Heughan is at his best when acting alongside Céline Dion. Yes, that Céline Dion.

As it turns out, the iconic Canadian singer plays herself in the film and becomes Rob’s romantic confidant after he is recruited to interview her for an upcoming tour. Of course, you can’t help but wonder if her casting is a plug, as it’s one of the most disjointed decisions in the history of cinema. Though if you’re a fan of hers, the film’s highlights are the moments she reminisces about her relationship with her late husband, René Angélil, and hearing her hits play in real-time.

Perhaps Dion’s casting was an attempt to mask Love Again’s nonsensical storyline and unstimulating romance, which is so far removed from reality that you’re left scratching your head as you attempt to decipher how it originated in the first place. And unfortunately, not even the magic of ‘All by Myself’ nor ‘It’s All Coming Back to Me Now’ can distract us from it.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

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‘Love Again’ Review: Not Even Celine Dion Can Save This Wildly Contrived Rom-Com from Its Own Sadness

David ehrlich.

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It’s never a great sign when the funniest part of your romantic comedy involves the female lead’s flawless boyfriend being killed by a drunk driver in the opening scene (picture Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ smiling face locked in a wide-eyed, ultra-slow-motion close-up as Keegan DeWitt’s lush and bouncy score is suddenly replaced by the Wilhelm scream of screeching tires), but in fairness to James C. Strouse’s absurd “ Love Again ,” this unclassifiable whatsit isn’t a traditional rom-com so much as a grief drama with a severe identity disorder. 

Yes, most of the laugh lines in “Love Again” are stale enough that even just hearing them kind of hurts your teeth, but for all of its blatant ridiculousness, this movie seldom tries to be funny. Don’t be fooled by the snarky gay best friend, the advice-giving sister, or the freak lightning storm that magically connects Chopra Jonas’ character to the world’s most chiseled music critic (Sam Heughan) through the mystical powers of their Sony mobile phones: “Love Again” might be possessed by the spirit of a rom-com, but it’s as deadly serious as a Celine Dion power ballad. 

Celine Dion… what a totally random point of comparison, right? WRONG! The Quebecois singer — who seems to be something of a magnet for batshit movies that hinge on her life story , uses this once as a chance to reflect on her own lost love — proves crucial to this mixed-up tale about two strangers teaching each other how their hearts might go on.

Rob’s lucky that he looks like a Scottish Tom Brady, and luckier still that he’s been assigned to write about Dion’s first American tour in 10 years. Not only is Rob so bad at his job that the singer (playing herself) take a personal interest in his incompetence, but — in the aftermath of some purple lightning above Manhattan — the work phone he’s given to record his interview starts receiving the voluminous text messages that children’s author Mira Ray (Chopra Jonas) has been sending to her dead partner as a healing exercise. 

It’s been two years since the tragedy, and Mira is basically still stuck in the “hide yourself away from the world” stage of grief. She’s living in her parents’ house, the caterpillar she’s famous for drawing seems like it’s never going to turn into a butterfly, and her punchy younger sister Suzy (an effervescent Sofia Barclay) is so desperate to get Mira some Dich that she even creates a Bumble profile for her. Watching Chopra Jonas and Barclay turn to the camera and say “that’s the dating app where the girl gets to make the first move!” was enough to make me wonder if “Love Again” might not be weirdly serious for a rom-com, but rather weirdly romantic for a piece of sponsored content. 

For a story whose third act (kind of) pivots on a random job offer from Celine Dion, “Love Again” could hardly be more predictable. From the moment that Rob endeavors to find Mira, you know that he’s going to hide the fact that he’s been getting her dead boyfriend’s texts, you know that they’ll eventually rekindle each other’s dormant romantic streak (cue: “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now”), only for Mira to discover the truth behind their meet-cute about eight seconds after they finally have sex. 

Not to begrudge a rom-com its conventions, but the scene where Mira learns Rob’s secret — and then storms out of his apartment without any follow-up questions! — goes a long way towards exposing the disconnect between the heaviness of Strouse’s hand and the silliness of his plot. There’s something admirable about the sterility of his direction, which resists the easy charm that most rom-coms rely upon to pave over their plot holes, but Strouse forfeits too much of the levity that “Love Again” needs to remain light on its feet. 

It doesn’t help that Chopra Jonas and Heughan have all the spark of a rusty lighter in the middle of a rainstorm, even though Chopra Jonas eases into her natural radiance once Mira begins to relax around Rob (an unmotivated turn that happens in the blink of an eye). Or that even Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert would struggle for something to hold onto amidst such oppressively forced circumstances; one problem with devoting roughly 45 minutes of a film to aerial shots of New York City is that it doesn’t leave a lot of time for the lead actors to develop their characters any deeper than they appear on the page.

A Sony release, “Love Again” is now playing in theaters.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love Again’ on Netflix, a Rom-Com Fueled By The Schmaltzy Power of Celine Dion

Where to stream:.

  • celine dion

Jimmy Kimmel Pokes Fun At Taylor Swift For Making “History” As “The First White Woman To Ignore Celine Dion” After The Grammys

Sam heughan’s shower scene in ‘love again’ helps quench thirst of droughtlander victims, new movies on streaming: ‘john wick: chapter 4’ + more, is ‘love again’ streaming on hbo max or netflix.

Romantic “comedy” /Celine Dion vanity promo reel Love Again recently wedged itself at the top of Netflix’s Top 10 , an occurrence that, last time I checked, was a sign of the apocalypse. Now, a baaaaaaad movie finding itself at that dubious-at-best streaming summit is nothing new – it just reignites all the usual questions that pop up under these circumstances, e.g., who’s watching this crap, is it REALLY being watched that much, is Netflix effing with us, will Netflix ever be transparent with its streaming numbers, why god why, etc. Priyanka Chopra Jonas headlines this drippy and insipid movie in which Dion plays a version of herself who’s a kind of love guru, dispensing romantic advice by reciting dialogue that seems inspired, if not derived wholesale, from Celine Dion lyrics. It also insists that we’re in the midst of a “Celineaissance” when A) we’re not, and B) “Dionaissance” is obviously the more mellifluous term, and C) this movie would be a rather audacious component of said pop-cultural movement, if it actually existed.

LOVE AGAIN : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We can tell Mira (Chopra Jonas) and John (Arinze Kene) love each other, because they say it about 1,000 times a minute. Each. She sits in a cafe, sketching ideas for her children’s books, when he drops by to surprise her with some tropical Skittles, which are her favorite. He loves her and she loves him and they love each other and they kiss and giggle and he has to go and she watches as she walks out and the camera holds on her face as we hear eeeerrrtttttt-screeech-CRASH and he dies. Are we supposed to be laughing at this? No. But we are anyway. Nothing like opening the movie with massive tonal discordance! Title card: TWO YEARS LATER. Mira ain’t over it. She mopes around her parents’ house and flumps around in her big thick socks and shit, drawing sad, weepy caterpillars for her award-winning series of books about caterpillars. Her publisher is unamused. Sad caterpillars don’t sell. I think all this is a metaphor: Mira is a sad caterpillar, but in human form. It’s clear that John would’ve made her transform into a luscious butterfly, but he’s dead, and now she’s content to stay curled up forever in her chrysalis. See, like I says, METAPHORS!!!

Elsewhere. Rob ( Outlander hunk Sam Heughan) is late for work. Overslept on the couch in a depressive funk. Again? Yeah, probably again. He finally gets to work – a newspaper where he’s the music critic. His editor hauls him in the office and says Rob ain’t getting that podcast he wants to do and instead he has to write a profile of Celine Dion for her new tour. As a former music critic for a newspaper, I can say this should take Rob about five, maybe six hours to complete, because he’d also have several dozen other assignments to get to, but this being a phony-ass movie, it’ll take him the rest of the movie, which plays out over, I believe, several weeks (it’s a bit fudgy). Why? Because this is how phony-ass movies work. Anyway. Rob is a sadboy because his fiance got cold feet and now he’s left to suffer alone with his grossly underdeveloped character. I mean, we know nothing about the guy other than he works at a newspaper with a couple of “colorful” coworker supporting characters. And he likes basketball, which we know because there’s a scene of him sitting on his couch watching basketball with a basketball on his lap, which is how nobody watches basketball, unless you’re watching basketball while you’re in a phony-ass movie.

Back to Mira. She has an uptempo sister, Suzy (Sofia Barclay), who exists to shake her out of this funk and get her to move back to The City and force her to use a dating app against her will. Mira resists, and settles on therapeutically sending her dead BF crushingly depressing texts. Meanwhile, Rob gets assigned a new phone at work and Kismet proclaims that it needs to be the dead boyfriend’s old number. Why Kismet instead of Mere Coincidence? Because Mere Coincidence has nothing to do with a purple-lightning storm over New York City that seems to inspire the eventual meeting of star-crossed lovers. Inexplicably, I might add. The story would function just fine without the purple lightning, but there it is anyway, and all we can do is shake our heads, roll our eyes and deal with it.

From here, you can piece the rest of this movie together: Will Rob read all the sad texts and fall in love with Mira simply due to the power of her words? Mmmmaybe. Will Mira go on a godawful date with a douche played by Chopra Jonas’ real-life hubs, Nick Jonas, because LOLs? Mmmmaybe. Will Rob lightly stalk Mira and force a meeting so they can fall in love and he canl never explain that he has her old boyfriend’s number, simply so the plot has a reason for a break-up-and-make-up third-act conflict? Mmmmaybe. And will Rob sit down to interview Celine Dion no less than three times, and end up getting sage romantic advice from the Queen of the Power Ballad herself, playing herself? Of course, because I think that’s why the movie exists in the first place.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Love Again isn’t quite a massive ego/vanity project like Cool as Ice or Glitter , but it’s definitely in the same ballpark.

Performance Worth Watching: I’m not sure any of this is truly “worth” watching, but it is kind of funny to see Chopra Jonas and Heughan attempt to kindle romance from a sopping-wet pile of rotten dialogue. 

Memorable Dialogue: Celine Dion Herself chastises Rob for being a schlub and points out that she is, indeed, Celine Dion Herself: “You have the presence of a pair of used underwear! Sit up straight! C’mon, you’re with Celine Dion !”

Sex and Skin: Nah. Just a post-coital snuggle.

Our Take: It’s one thing for a movie to entertain all the cliches of rom-coms, but it’s entirely another thing to do so with fists of ham, feet of lead, and brains of cottage cheese. Love Again does not play like the syrupy schmaltz of an oversung Celine Dion rager, the likes of which form a coagulatory bolus that lodges in the colon and takes weeks to fully digest; no, the film is more like raw fiber that goes down like donkey straw and rockets through you, leaving you bewildered, exhausted and a little bit sore. 

I know. I’m being mean. But to watch this movie is to experience molecular-level embarrassment for all involved parties. It’s a movie about death, grief, heartbreak, modern technology, the perils of stalking and the thorny process of healing. It’s also about CELINE F—ING DION, and don’t you forget it. For a movie that surely intends to poignantly explore the mysteriously magical mysteries of love, it left me with one piece of rock-solid life advice: If ever your heart aches, you should give Celine Dion a call. Or, if you don’t have her number, and she has a new album out (does she have a new album out?), you should go buy it.

OK, she doesn’t have a new album out. But she recorded five new songs for this film, which showcases them whenever we’re supposed to have an emotional response to the characters’ predicaments, as if Celine Dion Her F—ing Self was gently taking your hand and whispering in your ear what you need to be feeling. Now, this is the point in the review where the critic expresses their exasperation by addressing the reader directly: Reader, I resisted feeling those feelings. It wasn’t difficult, because this movie’s characters are empty souls stuck in a hopelessly contrived, zero-credibility when’s-the-other-shoe-gonna-drop/sitting-on-an-atomic-bomb-waiting-for-it-to-go-off rom-com plot that briefly stirs some romantic juices two but has the comedy acumen of a dead-eyed hammerhead shark stalking a halibut. My heart does not go on for this movie; yours probably won’t either.

Our Call: Shoulda called it Facepalm: The Movie . SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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movie review for love again

movie review for love again

"Flawed but Entertaining"

movie review for love again

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Lead male character withholds some information from the woman he starts dating, and she finds out on her own, which leads to the major plot problem at the end.

More Detail:

LOVE AGAIN is a romance about a children’s author in New York who tries to ease her grief over her boyfriend’s accidental death by sending texts to his old smart phone and ends up forming a love connection to a music critic who’s been reassigned the phone number. LOVE AGAIN has a few light comical moments and cute scenes, mixed with surprisingly touching and even profound, uplifting moments, but it has a Romantic non-Christian view about love and male-female relationships, 20 obscenities and light profanities, a bedroom scene, and brief lewd references.

The movie opens with two lovers, Mira and John, meeting over coffee. It’s clear that they’re truly in love. John leaves for a meeting, and Mira watches in horror from the coffee shop as he’s fatally injured as a vehicle hits him. The camera focuses on Mira’s face, and it’s an unexpected tragic moment that lifts the movie above the ordinary.

The two were growing very close, and he was about to propose. So, two years later, Mira, who writes children’s books, is still grieving over John’s death by hiding from the world at her parents’ house outside the city. Her younger sister, Suzy, however, cajoles Mira to return to New York City.

One day, Mira and Suzy are eating at a middle-aged friend’s restaurant. Mira asks the older man how he copes with his wife’s death. He tells her he takes time every week to have a glass of wine and pretending to talk to his wife as if she’s still with him. That helps him ease the pain, he says.

Mira tries to do that one night, but instead she ends up texting John’s old smartphone number. She doesn’t know, however, that John’s number has been assigned to the new work phone of a music reporter named Rob.

Rob becomes intrigued by the texts. All he knows is the phone number, however, not the name of the mystery women. One day, he learns that the unknown woman is meeting someone at a singles bar. He goes to the bar to see if he can determine who the woman is. One of his male coworkers goes with him. Rob spies Mira with some man and thinks this beautiful woman might be the woman from the anonymous texts. However, Mira leaves with the guy and later she kicks him out of their Uber when the guy becomes a jerk.

Everyone tells Rob to text Mira back, including the famous singer, Celine Dion, when he’s assigned to interview her during a press junket for her upcoming concert in New York City. He decides to go a different route when he learns that Mira loves the opera about the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus. The opera is being performed in town. So, Rob decides to start attending the opera, hoping to see her at the performance. On the third night, they run into each other and make a connection.

The first two dates go very well, but Rob is afraid to tell Mira how he ended up attending the opera. Big mistake!

LOVE AGAIN has a few light comical moments and cute scenes. They’re mixed with some surprisingly touching and even profound moments about grief and love.

The two romantic leads in LOVE AGAIN, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan, do a good job creating appealing characters. They help the movie overcome its predictable plot twists. That’s also true of the dialogue that’s written for them, which is varied, realistic, dramatic, and well developed. Celine Dion, the popular Canadian singer, makes a cameo appearance. The male lead’s character has to interview her for his outlet. In a fun twist, she gives him some advice on how to handle his situation. She also helps him overcome his cynical attitude about love after his fiancée broke up with him several years ago.

Morally and philosophically, however, LOVE AGAIN mostly has a Romantic, non-Christian view about love and male-female relationships. For example, pre-marital sex is not a problem for the characters who live in the modern, urban, “sophisticated” world that the movie establishes. The filmmakers slip a fantasy element into that world. For example, the movie implies from time to time that “destiny” has brought the two lovers together. There’s a reference to “the universe” in one line of dialogue, for example, but other scenes imply an afterlife and a divine providence. Also on the positive side, the movie has some solid moral, redemptive, uplifting elements about hope and healing.

In addition to its Romantic worldview, though, LOVE AGAIN has 20 obscenities and light profanities, a bedroom scene, and brief lewd references to sex and male genitals. So, overall, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

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‘Love Again’ review: Netizens call Priyanka and Sam’s film ‘the best rom-com ever’

From stunning red carpet appearances to hit releases, 2023 so far has been Priyanka Chopra’s year. While Citadel is still making all the right noises globally, PeeCee is ready for another 2023 release with Love Again . The trailer of the movie was shared back in February and fans were eagerly waiting for Love Again’s release date. Looking at the early  reviews of the movie Love Again , we can say that the film was worth the wait.

Helmed by James C. Strouse, Priyanka Chopra’s Love Again movie is an English-language remake of the 2016 German film SMS für Dich , which itself is based on a novel by Sofie Cramer. The film released on 5 May and since then has been received well by fans and critics alike. Let’s see what the audience has to say about Priyanka and Sam’s latest   release.

Love Again movie: Cast, plot, review & more

Love Again movie review

The film stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, and Celine Dion in key roles. The renowned singer is portraying a fictionalised version of herself in her debut film role. Also, don’t miss Nick Jonas’ adorable cameo in the film.

The story revolves around Mira Ray (Priyanka Chopra), who is struggling to cope with the death of her fiancé. She decides to start dropping romantic messages to his old phone number to keep his memories alive. Little does she realise that she unintentionally is messaging a man named Rob Burn (Sam Heughan), who has been reassigned Ray’s fiancé’s number. As a journalist, Rob is drawn towards the stranger who sends beautifully written texts. So, when he meets famous singer Celine Dion for a feature report, he seeks her assistance in finding a way to meet Mira in real life and ultimately win her heart.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Twitter review: Fans call it the best MCU film

The audience is totally blown away with this old-school romance and that’s translated into positive reviews as well. Here’s what Twitter is saying.

OMG!!! Just home after seeing #LoveAgain Best RomCom everrrrr!!!!! Phenomenal cast & #Sam was #Outstanding ✨️♥️ Filled with so much emotion♡taking me from laughter to tears & back again I’ll be going again♥️ #SamHeughan #PriyankaChopra #CelineDion #AMustSee !!!!! pic.twitter.com/twuwh2ovJt — Tamara (@SchnepsTamara) May 5, 2023
My special dates seeing @SamHeughan @priyankachopra @celinedion in #LoveAgainMovie were my parents who’ve been married for 60 years. We really enjoyed watching it while crying & laughing throughout the film. Definitely a throwback to the wonderful rom-coms of the past. #LoveAgain pic.twitter.com/BtFeWS9Qki — Elizabeth Smith (@Dumspirospero67) May 6, 2023
So Waiting On You is a gospel-like track. #LoveAgain #LoveAgainMovie #CelineDion — Brian Nantes (@BrianNantes) May 6, 2023
Agree, Agree ‼️ #LoveAgain great RomCom ❤️ — Judy (@Emmalines_Mom) May 6, 2023
#LoveAgain is a Terrific Movie about Love!! @celinedion is truly a National Treasure & her music just speaks to you! The whole cast was great too! @priyankachopra @SamHeughan @russelltovey @nickjonas pic.twitter.com/5Zev6p611N — Shawn (@RayOfLight_5) May 5, 2023
Just came back from watching #LoveAgainMovie & can totally relate in many ways. I lost someone, almost 2 years ago & still find myself grieving & not completely being able to move on. Maybe this was Chris’s way of letting me know ‘it’s OK and time’. I miss him. @celinedion pic.twitter.com/ZweZSm9NHD — MyWiseEyes (@MyWiseEyes1) May 6, 2023
My friends & I just saw a little film #LoveAgainMovie with @SamHeughan @priyankachopra and @celinedion whose new music is fabulous…. a sweet movie for a fun evening with friends & I recommend it… I think @SamHeughan found his niche.. who knew your comic timing was so on point‍♀️ — Linda C ⛰ (@chippie83) May 6, 2023
Girls’ movie night with my daughters seeing #LoveAgainMovie and we all loved it! A sweet, fun rom-com like this is something that is badly needed right now. Such a positive, feel-good movie!❤️ @loveagainmovie @SamHeughan @priyankachopra @celinedion pic.twitter.com/PAJl1cv2NH — Amy B (@amybud) May 6, 2023
Fell in #LoveAgainMovie tonight!!! It’s so good!! ❤️ Great clean, positive #movie ! Recommend for #date #night . Have… “You don’t have to move a mountain, just keep moving…” in my head. Thank you @celinedion !! @celinepodcast @LesRedHeads @CelineOracle pic.twitter.com/0okiKXsIvb — Alicia Horonzy (@AliciaHoronzy) May 6, 2023

Anomaly: Net worth of Priyanka Chopra’s haircare brand and the products to buy

Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao reviews PeeCee’s latest release

Love Again: Rajkummar Rao's review

Ahead of the release of the movie, Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra met at a special screening of the film. PeeCee’s The White Tiger  co-star loved the movie and dropped a quick review of Love Again on his Instagram story. He wrote, “Congratulations Priyanka Chopra on Love Again . Really enjoyed this sweet, fun and romantic comedy with some fine performances and you were fab as always my friend. Thank you for having me for your New York screening of Love Again.”

Hero & Feature Image: Courtesy IMDb

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Answer: 'Love Again' is a remake of the 2016 German film SMS für Dich, which was itself based on a novel by Sofie Cramer.

Answer: The movie revolves around a young woman who is trying to overcome the pain of her fiancé's death by sending romantic texts to his old cell phone number and forming a connection with the man the number has been reassigned to.

Answer: The film stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, and Celine Dion in key roles.

Answer: Yes, Nick Jonas has a cameo in the film 'Love Again'.

‘Love Again’ review: Netizens call Priyanka and Sam’s film ‘the best rom-com ever’

Ananya Swaroop

Cinema has always fascinated Ananya, so much that she got a degree in media to know more about it. She has worked for magazines like Man's World India and CineBlitz as an entertainment writer. When not writing about films and celebrities, she likes to travel to new places or try new cuisines. Travel and Food are her latest interests and she is looking forward to explore these further.

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movie review for love again

10 Movies That Will Make You Believe in Love Again

T he cinema has been home to an abundance of beloved films that feature jaded characters rediscovering, or discovering for the first time, the magic of love. From celebrated literary classics to iconic romantic comedies , poignant dramas and unforgettable farces, the silver screen is brilliant at depicting unlucky-at-love protagonists who are given a second chance at romance while learning about themselves along the way.

Moviegoers couldn’t get enough of the winning chemistry between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson in Sofia Coppola’s thought-provoking masterpiece Lost in Translation, just like they flocked to theaters to witness Elizabeth Bennett tame the haughty Mr. Darcy in the adaptation of the Jane Austen classic Pride & Prejudice . With these and many other sweet examples, here are 10 movies that will make you believe in love again.

10 Things I Hate About You

Release Date 1999-03-31

Director Gil Junger

Cast Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Krumholtz, Larisa Oleynik, Julia Stiles

Rating PG-13

Genres Drama, Romance, Comedy

Touting a sensational ensemble cast including Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Larisa Oleynik, the 1999 beloved teen rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern-day retelling of the classic Shakespeare play The Taming of the Shrew , and centers on new student Cameron (Gordon-Levitt) who is enamored by the popular and beautiful Bianca (Oleynik) and concocts a plan to romantically pursue her by getting the school's resident bad boy Patrick (Ledger) to date her standoffish sister Kat (Stiles).

Why It Will Make You Believe In Love

The fan-favorite cult classic truly shines because of the blossoming love between the cynical Kat and troublemaking Patrick, and though she initially had little faith in the male species and experienced previous heartbreak, she develops a profound bond with her charming pursuer. It's impossible to forget Kat's emotional and deeply moving poem she recites in class that ultimately reveals her love for Patrick, and the two reconcile by the end of the flick to the delight of heavily-invested viewers.

Stream on Disney+

Release Date 2013-09-04

Director Richard Curtis

Cast Richard Cordery, Bill Nighy, Rachel McAdams, Domhnall Gleeson, Lydia Wilson, Lindsay Duncan

Genres Drama, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Documentary

Gifted with the ability to travel back in time to special moments he previously experienced, the young and in-love Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) decides to utilize his wondrous power in order to win over the object-of-his-affection Charlotte (Margot Robbie). About Time chronicles Tim's mission to time travel and capture Charlotte's heart, only to be devastated after he realizes she simply isn't interested and that he'll never be able to change her mind. A jaded and embittered Tim finds himself given a second chance at love when he meets the kind and carefree Mary (Rachel McAdams), who changes his life.

Related: The 14 Best Romance Movies of the 2010s

Though Tim goes back in time in hopes of altering his future, he realizes he can't make someone love him, and it causes him to lose hope in romance altogether. His pessimistic outlook on love after being scorned by Charlotte is turned completely upside down when he falls for Mary, and he valiantly tries to make sure they cross paths after a series of events change his life's course. About Time captivated audiences with its heartfelt message and touching love story, and became both a critical and commercial success.

Rent on Prime Video

When Harry Met Sally...

When harry met sally.

Release Date 1989-01-12

Director Rob Reiner

Cast Lisa Jane Persky, Steven Ford, Bruno Kirby, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Billy Crystal

Genres Drama, Romance, Comedy, Documentary

Widely regarded as one of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, Rob Reiner's 1989 cinematic masterpiece When Harry Met Sally... famously stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as two close pals who set out to answer the age-old question "Can men and women ever just be friends?" after the duo develop a strong connection despite constantly being in conflicting places and romantic relationships when they meet. The eponymous characters go on a journey of self-discovery and struggle to stay just friends as feelings unsurprisingly grow.

When Harry Met Sally... is a timeless classic that highlights the pair's many ups-and-downs while proving to audiences the profound power and everlasting impact of love. Their enduring and drawn-out love story was an instant hit with audiences and the unconventional premise and contrasting personalities of Harry and Sally swiftly established the rom-com as one of the cinema's finest.

Stream on Paramount+

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Release Date 2004-03-19

Director Michel Gondry

Cast Gerry Robert Byrne, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Thomas Jay Ryan, Jim Carrey

Genres Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi, Documentary

Jim Carrey delivered one of the best performances of his dynamic career when he appeared opposite Kate Winslet in the critically-acclaimed 2003 sci-fi romantic drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , focusing on the lovelorn Joel Barish as he makes the shocking discovery that his beloved ex-girlfriend Clementine has undergone a procedure to completely erase any memories of him or their time together as a couple. A devastated Joel decides to have the same operation done, yet as he begins to re-live the memories, he changes his mind.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was lauded for its depiction of loss and the complexities of being in a relationship while offering a poignant look at heartache and vulnerability. Though the broken Joel felt compelled to act out of spite and pain to have the same procedure done, he realized that no matter how tumultuous their relationship may have been, their love was genuine and beautiful all the same, and he didn't want to lose the memories, however painful. Joel and Clementine find their way back to one another even after completely forgetting one another, proving their connection was deeper than memory.

Stream on Peacock

The Holiday

Release Date 2006-12-08

Director Nancy Meyers

Cast Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Edward Burns, Eli Wallach, Jack Black, Jude Law

Genres Romance, Comedy

Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, and Jude Law headline the festive 2006 rom-com The Holiday , centering on the emotionally devastated society columnist Iris Simpkins (Winslet) and unlucky-at-love movie trailer producer Amanda Woods (Diaz) as the young women decide to exchange homes in an effort to escape their respective romantic woes. Iris heads to sunny Los Angeles while Amanda travels to snowy London, and despite both wanting nothing to do with men, find themselves falling for charming suitors.

There's a reason The Holiday has become a modern-day Christmas classic , and that's because viewers couldn't help but love the charismatic and quirky characters and heartfelt premise. Iris is left shattered when her feelings and devotion for someone aren't reciprocated, but her outlook on life and love are completely transformed when she meets the elderly screenwriter Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach), who encourages her to be the leading lady in her own movie and to not give up on romance.

Stream on Hulu

Release Date 2013-12-18

Director Spike Jonze

Cast Artt Butler, Gabe Gomez, Lisa Renee Pitts, Lynn A. Freedman, Joaquin Phoenix, ​Chris Pratt2

Genres Drama, Romance, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Documentary

Spike Jonze directed the Oscar-winning 2013 sci-fi romantic drama Her , telling the peculiar story of the lonely and depressed Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) as he spends his time writing personal and intimate letters for people unable to do-so themselves. Reeling over his impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart, Theodore becomes infatuated with the compassionate AI virtual assistant Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), and he opens his heart up to love once more as they develop a powerful bond.

The sensitive Theodore breaks out of his shell, and he is able to grow emotionally and socially thanks to the help of the vivacious Samantha The pair begin to experience deep romantic feelings for one another that others are unable to comprehend. Samantha shows up in Theodore's life when he needs her most and she helps mend his broken heart, resulting in a profoundly sincere romantic story that left a lasting impact on audiences. The film landed on numerous critics' lists for best movies of the year and was celebrated for its phenomenal performances.

Release Date 2013-02-07

Director Lasse Hallström

Cast Mimi Kirkland, David Lyons, Julianne Hough, Cobie Smulders, Noah Lomax, Josh Duhamel

Genres Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller

Based on the popular Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, the 2013 fantasy romantic drama Safe Haven follows the terrified and desperate Katie Feldman (Julianne Hough) as she manages to flee her abusive and violent husband and escape to the small coastal town of Southport, North Carolina in hopes of starting a new life. Though she intends to fly under the radar, Katie becomes charmed by the compassionate close-knit community and finds herself falling for a kind-hearted widow (Josh Duhamel) struggling to raise his two young children.

Why It Will Make You Believe In Love Again

Katie's heart is battered and bruised when she shows up in Southport, and she is frightened that her dangerous detective husband will find her and ruin her fresh start. She tries to fight her growing attraction to Alex and fondness for his kids because of how she was treated in the past, but she learns that he is not like her ex and that a healthy and enriching romantic relationship is possible for her. In true Sparks fashion, Safe Haven will tug at moviegoers' heartstrings and make them invested in Katie's harrowing story.

Stream on Max

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Release Date 2008-04-17

Director Nick Stoller

Cast Liz Cackowski, Bill Hader, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand, Jason Segel

After his titular actress girlfriend dumps him after being together for five-years, a forlorn and emotionally wrecked music composer goes on a soul-searching journey to Hawaii in hopes of getting over his famous ex in the smash hit 2008 romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall . Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) finds himself at the Turtle Bay resort to mend his broken heart and rediscover himself, only to find that his ex Sarah (Kristen Bell) is at the same hotel with her new rock star beau (Russell Brand). Peter struggles to take his mind off their indiscreet romance as he falls for the fiesty and beautiful resort receptionist Rachel (Mila Kunis).

Why It Will Make You Fall In Love Again

While Peter spends the first half of the hilarious flick depressed over his failed relationship and yearning for Sarah, he slowly comes to life again by spending time with the vibrant Rachel. Peter becomes a much happier person when he's with his new love, and she encourages him to pursue his dreams and find his inner confidence, resulting in perhaps the hilight of the movie: a side-splitting puppet rock opera featuring Dracula. Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a light-hearted yet endearing rom-com that will take viewers on an emotional ride right along with Peter.

Stream on Netflix

Lost in Translation (2003)

Lost in translation.

Release Date 2003-09-18

Director Sofia Coppola

Cast Take, Kazuko Shibata, Kazuyoshi Minamimagoe, Akiko Takeshita, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson

Genres Drama, Documentary

Sofia Coppola directed the unforgettable 2003 romantic dramedy Lost in Translation , utilizing the talents of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson to portray the mismatched kindred spirits Bob Harris and Charlotte as they develop a refreshing and rare bond after meeting one another in Tokyo, Japan. Washed-up movie star Bob is coping with a crumbling marriage and experiencing a midlife crisis when he crosses paths with the young and beautiful Yale graduate and newlywed Charlotte, and together the pair share a life-altering connection while in the foreign land.

Related: 10 Romantic Indie Films That Are Anything but Cheesy

Coppola wanted to create an affecting picture involving two characters going through a "romantic melancholy" and believed they were going through a comparable internal crisis despite being in two very different stages of life. Bob and Charlotte share a unique bond and refuse to act on their blossoming feelings due to their complicated romantic histories. Instead they develop a familiarity and intimacy that runs deeper than a sexual relationship that helps make the film a non-traditional romantic classic.

Pride & Prejudice

Release Date 2005-09-16

Director joe wright

Cast Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Talulah Riley, Rosamund Pike, Donald Sutherland

Genres Drama, Romance, Documentary

Adapted from the celebrated Jane Austen masterpiece , Joe Wright's 2005 romantic drama Pride & Prejudice notably centers on the Bennett sisters as they deal with mounting societal pressures and expectations and the many ups-and-downs of life and love, chronicling eldest sibling Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and her courtship with the seemingly snobbish and haughty Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFayden). The feisty Elizabeth bewitches Darcy even though they come from different social standings, and he must overcome his pride if he wishes to earn her love and hand in marriage.

Universally beloved and cherished by audiences all across the world, Pride & Prejudice has been retold countless times on the big screen yet continues to captivate the masses because of its emotionally-stirring love story. Elizabeth and Darcy may be opposite in many ways and come from conflicting backgrounds, but their connection transcends their stark differences and the headstrong heroine helps bring Darcy out of his shell and embrace the potential for love and passion. The 2005 adaptation remains one of the cinema's greatest and most moving versions of the Austen classic.

10 Movies That Will Make You Believe in Love Again

'Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2' Review: Bear of Little Brain Makes a Surprising Improvement

Here we go again.

The Big Picture

  • Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 improves upon its predecessor by exploring Christopher Robin's trauma and providing answers to lingering questions.
  • The sequel shifts focus to provide stronger character development and storytelling rather than solely gratuitous horror.
  • However, despite some improvements, the film still struggles with shaky directing during violent scenes and fails to fully utilize the potential of the Poohniverse.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey was one of the worst films released last year . A mind-numbingly boring film that was poorly made in every way, it coasted on the idea of doing disturbing things to a beloved property that was now in the public domain. Blood and Honey couldn’t even come close to so-bad-it’s-good territory, as writer-director Rhys Frake-Waterfield took an idea that theoretically could’ve had potential and squandered it to make a terrible slasher film that cost only $100,000. It was filmed over ten days and truly felt like it.

But a lack of imagination and good ideas didn’t stop this universe from rolling ahead , with plans for a larger “Poohniverse” recently announced that would bring in those like Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Bambi, the Mad Hatter, Tinkerbell, and more from Blood and Honey —not to mention a slew of other characters getting their own individual films. It seemed as though the failure of the first film hadn’t deterred this cinematic Poohniverse of public domain fantasy characters to just steamroll right along.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

Not wanting to live in the shadows any longer, Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Owl and Tigger take their fight to the town of Ashdown, leaving a bloody trail of death and mayhem in their wake.

Yet it’s with a sequel that no one seemingly wanted, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 , that the legs of this concept are truly tested. Is Frake-Waterfield really going to make an entire world, skating by solely on people’s nostalgia for characters largely popularized by Disney animated films? Or is Blood and Honey 2 an opportunity to correct the errors of the first film and right this ship into something actually interesting? With Blood and Honey 2 , the answer is yes to both.

What Is 'Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2' About?

Blood and Honey 2 explains that since the events of the first film, both Winnie-the-Pooh ( Ryan Oliva ) and Christopher Robin ( Scott Chambers ) have been ostracized by the community of Christopher’s hometown of Ashdown. After the Hundred-Acre Massacre, many in the town believe Christopher is lying that anthropomorphic creatures killed all these people, and that Christopher is the true murderer. Meanwhile, some who do believe that Christopher is telling the truth are searching the woods for Pooh and his friends Owl ( Marcus Massey ) and Tigger ( Lewis Santer ). Instead of hiding, Owl suggests that they should take the fight to the people and teach them a lesson on their own turf.

For Christopher, the events of the past haunt him regularly . A terrible movie has been made about the events of what happened to him (which is, actually, the first Blood and Honey ), and Christopher visits a therapist to try and uncover things that he’s buried in his past—including what happened to his brother, who disappeared at a young age. Christopher tries to make sense of what led to all of this while the Hundred-Acre Wood crew of murderers become a true threat to the people of Ashdown.

'Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2' Smartly Changes Focus to Christopher Robin

Right away, Blood and Honey 2 makes some promising strides in the right direction. The idea of making the original film an in-universe recreation of events is a sly way to restart this universe and accept that previous film for what it is. Similarly, the parallels between Christopher and Winnie make for a stronger narrative. This time around, Blood and Honey 2 is written by Matt Leslie , who seems to actually have ideas that go beyond just coming up with, “Hey, what if Winnie the Pooh was a maniac serial killer?” For example, the first film left the audience with plenty of questions that the film had simply no interest in answering, like why the hell does Winnie-the-Pooh look like a massive man wearing a shitty bear mask, how did these creatures come to life, and why did I pay good, hard-earned money to see this film? Blood and Honey 2 answers those first two questions, and in doing so, makes what was a nonsensical horror series seem like there’s actually some method to this madness.

Blood and Honey 2 also makes the smart choice to center this story around Christopher Robin, his family, and the trauma that started this situation in the first place. The first film focused far too much on generic, mindless horror tropes with no real narrative purpose, but with Chambers—taking over as Christoper from Nikolai Leon —this sequel does a decent job of trying to inject some humanity into this ludicrous idea. Thanks to Leslie’s script, Christopher’s journey for answers is far more entertaining and intriguing than whatever murder spree is going on with those monstrous killers. Again, this series seems like it was pieced together from the barest idea possible, but Leslie’s approach to this story at least tries to turn this into something that works and sort of succeeds.

There's Still a Long Way to Go For the Poohniverse

But to be clear, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 isn’t a complete 180 from the first film: it’s a step in a better direction than the first one, which is an extremely low bar. It does at least seem like Frake-Waterfield took the criticisms that were made about the first film and actually attempted to do things better with this sequel, but still, there’s more work to be done. Blood and Honey 2 still isn’t as scary, shocking in its violence, or funny as it thinks it is, and the best aspects of this film merely come from seeing the improvements made since the last one. There’s also still absolutely no reason why this is a Winnie-the-Pooh story and not just a film about a kid being haunted by his childhood friends, other than that this series knows that people are going to see it based on morbid curiosity alone. Even with the introduction of Tigger and Owl (who looks like Ivan Ooze from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie ), there’s very little being done to go all-in. Besides a few one-liners that are tied to the Milne books, this still feels like a cash grab courtesy of the public domain.

Another reason why Christopher’s segments of Blood and Honey 2 work so much better than the actual horror parts is that the directing here is still extremely rough. When this is somewhat of a drama, Frake-Waterfield doesn’t have to do much behind the camera, and yet, that works. However, when the blood starts spilling, this becomes a dark, shaky mess, poorly edited and clearly filmed with an attempt to hide the low-budget nature of the action. Often, it’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on during these murders, due to the darkness, the ever-present fog, the rapid-fire cutting, or all three at once. There are much better ways to hide low budgets in horror films, and this simply isn’t how to go about it. If anything, the direction makes the more direct horror aspects of Blood and Honey 2 the weakest part of the film.

Compared to the train wreck that was the first film, Blood and Honey 2 starts to take its possibilities a bit more seriously as it tries to reach this idea’s true potential. This sequel finds some clever ways to fix some fundamental issues, and while this series still has plenty of problems, at least it’s clear that Frake-Waterfield and Leslie are trying to figure out the best way to tackle this as they go along and with what resources they do have. Blood and Honey 2 still isn’t exactly “good,” and it might be a bit premature to start working on a sprawling Poohniverse, but considering the dregs this series began at, this is a flawed improvement that’s still a bear of little brain.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is a step above its predecessor, improving upon this concept in every way, but there are still plenty of weaknesses in this fantasy horror series.

  • Blood and Honey 2 makes sense of the bigger questions left hanging from the first film.
  • The decision to focus the story on Christopher Robin gives this narrative more direction.
  • The action and horror are still muddy and poorly directed.
  • There's still absolutely no reason why this is a Winnie the Pooh story.

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 is now in theaters in the U.S. Click below for showtimes.

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Performance-Enhancing Drama

Even if ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ can get too juiced up from time to time, there’s still plenty to admire about the Kristen Stewart–led pulp flick

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movie review for love again

Kristen Stewart is too famous to be a chameleon, and too distinctive to be a shape-shifter—no matter how hard she tries to disappear into roles, she remains visible and vivid. She knows it, too, and she’s learned how to lean into all the flinty, self-conscious mannerisms that once made her such a polarizing on-screen persona. Stewart has effectively turned her own well-documented anxieties about being the center of attention into her best weapon—and the results have been brilliant. Her specialties are nervous tension and spiritual claustrophobia: She excels at inhabiting outcasts, loners, and runaways. Playing Princess Diana in Spencer , she went past impersonation into empathetic communion; her acting evinced such a sense of discombobulated glamour that she was nominated for an Oscar.

The more control that Stewart exercises over her career, the more she distances herself from a mainstream that never quite knew what to do with her in the first place. Over the past decade or so, she’s been letting her freak flag fly at full mast. It’s hard to imagine another A-lister pulling off the extreme hypnotic solipsism and full-frontal exhibitionism in Olivier Assayas’s millennial ghost story Personal Shopper , or delivering the wryly transgressive mantra of David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future — “surgery is the new sex” —with such compulsively funny topspin. From Assayas to Cronenberg to Kelly Reichardt, Stewart has consciously styled herself—like Nicole Kidman before her—as a ready and willing auteur plaything.

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Enter the 34-year-old British director Rose Glass, who, like Cronenberg, is a body-horror specialist: Her excellent 2019 debut, Saint Maud , centered on a lymphoma-stricken choreographer whose agonizing physical deterioration gets juxtaposed against the psychological implosion of her pious—and potentially murderous—hospice nurse. It’s easy to draw a line between Saint Maud ’s bruising violence and brooding metaphysics and Glass’s soon-to-be-released follow-up, Love Lies Bleeding , which casts Stewart—pretty much perfectly—as Lou, a lesbian gym manager stewing in her own self-pity and familial dysfunction at the far end of New Mexico. The year is 1989, and here in the desert, Lou—whose responsibilities include unclogging toilets and fending off drunks—is about as isolated from any kind of progressive subculture as she would’ve been on the moon. The cutaways to news reports about the impending collapse of the Berlin Wall seem to mock her sense of entrapment.

There is a long American cinematic tradition of bored small-town girls being rescued from their ennui by dark princes—think Badlands or Natural Born Killers . Love Lies Bleeding , which was written by Glass and Weronika Tofilska, exists in thrall to those landmarks. Between its period setting and aesthetic, it also can’t help but evoke canonical ’90s sleaze like Bound and Showgirls (the latter of which Glass reportedly showed the cast in preparation). Lou has an ardent suitor in the form of Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov), a semi-coherent addict who’s seemingly always underfoot, but the object of her desire is a newcomer: Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a wayward female bodybuilder blowing through town en route to a potentially lucrative competition in Las Vegas. (Actually, Jackie’s very conspicuous arrival puts locals of all genders at DEFCON 3; Daisy is not amused.) Lou’s down bad; the question of precisely where her infatuation with the muscled, mysterious newcomer will lead is the hook, and it proves sturdy enough to hang two movies at once: one a raw, bloody neo-noir à la Jim Thompson , the other a shapely, revisionist sexploitation riff designed for maximum multiplex transgression. It doesn’t take long before Jackie is crashing at Lou’s place and making plans for them to take Sin City together. “I want to stretch you,” Lou whispers as her fingers explore beneath her guest’s elastic waistband—a line that gestures toward how carefully Love Lies Bleeding has been calibrated for the female gaze.

The sheer sensual pleasure Glass takes in photographing and choreographing her two leads in various states of intimacy is palpable, as is the performers’ commitment to their roles. They make quite a pair visually: The disparity between Jackie’s rigorously chiseled body and Lou’s scrawny frame as they stretch out in bed together has the potency of a dirty comic book panel. When Love Lies Bleeding premiered at Sundance, Stewart talked about feeling genuinely turned on by the material, and as a vehicle for a queer mainstream superstar to test-drive her impulses, Glass’s film feels custom-tooled. From scene to (sex) scene, Love Lies Bleeding is decisively more erotic than Ethan Coen’s recent lesbian road movie, Drive-Away Dolls . But it’s also considerably more labored—an exercise in heavy breathing that gradually starts sucking wind, whereas Dolls simply drifts by on its own goofy good vibes .

The wheezing starts with the appearance of Lou’s father, Lou Sr. (Ed Harris), a wizened petty crook who runs the local shooting range and presides over the local underworld with sinister equanimity. Lank-haired and laconic behind blue eyes, Harris looks even more grotesque here than he did in A History of Violence , and while he’s more than up to the task of playing a vivid villain, there’s something mechanical in the character’s menace—he’s less a flesh-and-blood bad guy than an avatar of patriarchal subjugation. The implication is that Lou Sr. has always longed for his daughter-slash-namesake to prove herself as a chip off the old block, and he figures his younger daughter is responsible when his brutish son-in-law, JJ (Dave Franco), disappears into thin air the night after he puts Lou’s older sister in the ER. But the real culprit—as we see in a sequence that kicks the plot into gear and sets the bar high for on-screen gore in 2024—is Jackie, whose repressed anger has a habit of exploding at inopportune moments. A callow bully like JJ is no match for a woman who’s so freakishly strong that she almost seems to be in the wrong cinematic universe. Suffice it to say that you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.

The quasi-superheroic nature of Jackie’s character is a calculated risk tied to larger artistic ambitions. In Saint Maud , Glass was dealing with a character subject to religious visions, which allowed the director to showcase some surreal, supernatural imagery without violating the film’s narrative coherence. In Love Lies Bleeding , though, it’s the film itself that seems to be hallucinating, as if under the influence of the heavy-duty steroids flowing through Jackie’s body at all times. A lot of what Glass is doing here, with her smash-cut editing and hyperbolic use of sound, could be described as flexing, and some of it is impressive: A sequence in which our heroines drive out to a massive, jagged gorge to dispose of a corpse pays off its own slow-burn suspense tactics with a mythic-looking inferno. But there are also key passages that feel too impressionistic for their own good, like a pageant competition that descends horrifically but unconvincingly into chaos and threatens to push the movie past its own tonal breaking point.

The excitement of such a brazen, reality-blurring approach is real, but so are its pitfalls. By the time these existentially addled characters are drawing battle lines against each other, the excessive contrivance of the plotting, combined with the relentlessness of the style (and the bloodshed), becomes alienating rather than rallying. One by-product of so much steroidal overkill is that Stewart’s own subtly modulated acting gets lost in the commotion, while O’Brian can’t do much more than lurch through the proceedings. The final scenes go hard, and yet there’s something weirdly weightless about the climax, which yields a mixture of exhilaration and emptiness that may or may not be intentional. The best thrillers leave us worn out but satisfied. At the end of Love Lies Bleeding , there’s only exhaustion, and the vague feeling of having been dragged along on a fast ride to nowhere in particular.

Adam Nayman is a film critic, teacher, and author based in Toronto; his book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together is available now from Abrams.

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COMMENTS

  1. Love Again

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    Rob, in the midst of paralyzing heartbreak because his fiancée dumped him a week before their wedding — zero context on that, by the way — is moved by her passionate yearning. Following a ...

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    On May 5, 2023, Sony Pictures released "Love Again" starring Sam Heughan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in the romantic comedy. A young woman (Chopra Jonas) tries to ease the pain of her fia…

  7. Love Again (2023)

    Love Again: Directed by Jim Strouse. With Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, Céline Dion, Sofia Barclay. A young woman tries to ease the pain of her fiancé's death by sending romantic texts to his old cell phone number, and forms a connection with the man the number has been reassigned to.

  8. Love Again Movie Review

    Parents need to know that Love Again is a romantic comedy about finding love after loss; it's based on the book Text for You by Sofie Cramer. Singer Céline Dion co-stars as herself, using her music and personal experiences to guide main characters Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Rob (Sam Heughan) on their emotional journey.Romance is core to the story: There's kissing, and supporting ...

  9. Love Again (2023)

    10/10. Cute and romantic in the best way. mikefreebelieve 28 May 2023. I missed old school romantic movies who doesnt need to become vulgar or make its protagonist humiliated through the whole movie. Love again is so sweet of a film. The two leading actors are loveable with good chemistry. The rhythm of the film is great.

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    Love Again Review. After her boyfriend is killed in a car incident, children's book illustrator Mira Ray (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) sends texts to his phone to process her trauma. Yet when they are ...

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    Love Again A predictable and cliché romcom with an improbable premise. Priyanka Chopra isn't convincing as a grieving lover, and her co-lead doesn't sell the music critic/writer persona, but the chemistry between them is believable and cute. It's jarring seeing how the movie is set in New York but filmed in England.

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    LOVE AGAIN REVIEW. Love Again is a light-hearted romance movie that won't win any awards (not that it's trying to) but will win over the hearts of romantics everywhere.. It's a nice bit of fluff escapism set in New York City that fully embraces what it is: a romantic comedy fantasy following rom-com trope after trope with a HEA as its cherry on top.

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    A good friend dealing with his own tragic loss suggests that he makes it through by sitting down with a glass of wine and sharing his thoughts with an empty chair representing his deceased wife. It helps him talk things out. Even vent sometimes. When Mira tries this wine-and-vent ritual, however, she feels silly.

  14. Love Again (2023)

    Love Again, 2023. Directed by Jim Strouse. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, and Céline Dion. SYNOPSIS: A young woman tries to ease the pain of her fiancé's death by sending ...

  15. Love Again Film Review: Even Celine Dion Can't Save ...

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  16. 'Love Again' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?

    Romantic "comedy"/Celine Dion vanity promo reel Love Again recently wedged itself at the top of Netflix's Top 10, an occurrence that, last time I checked, was a sign of the apocalypse.Now, a ...

  17. Love Again Movie Review: Celine Dion's love ballads are the biggest

    News Movies Reviews Love Again Review: Celine Dion's love ballads are the highlight of Priyanka, Sam's film. Love Again Movie Review: Celine Dion's love ballads are the biggest highlight of this Priyanka and Sam's film. Priyanka Chopra and Sam Heughan's Love Again is a film that aims to rekindle romance. With solid performances and ...

  18. Love Again Review: Just Walk Away

    Review: Just Walk Away. Love Again is nothing but a chintzy promotional tool for Celine Dion. Early in writer-director Jim Strouse's Love Again, music journalist Rob Burns (Sam Heughan) receives his latest assignment: a profile on Celine Dion as she embarks on a new tour. When Rob, a defiantly unsentimental Scottish bloke, scoffs at the gig ...

  19. Love Again (film)

    Love Again is a 2023 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by James C. Strouse.It is an English-language remake of the 2016 German film SMS für Dich, itself based on a novel by Sofie Cramer. The film stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan, and Celine Dion, in her first feature film, portraying a fictionalized version of herself. ...

  20. LOVE AGAIN

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  21. LOVE AGAIN

    LOVE AGAIN has a few light comical moments and cute scenes, mixed with surprisingly touching and even profound, uplifting moments, but it has a Romantic non-Christian view about love and male-female relationships, 20 obscenities and light profanities, a bedroom scene, and brief lewd references. The movie opens with two lovers, Mira and John ...

  22. Love Again movie review: Netizens call Priyanka's film a great rom-com

    Looking at the early reviews of the movie Love Again, we can say that the film was worth the wait. Helmed by James C. Strouse, Priyanka Chopra's Love Again movie is an English-language remake of the 2016 German film SMS für Dich, which itself is based on a novel by Sofie Cramer. The film released on 5 May and since then has been received ...

  23. 10 Movies That Will Make You Believe in Love Again

    10 Things I Hate About You. Release Date 1999-03-31. Director Gil Junger. Cast Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Krumholtz, Larisa Oleynik, Julia Stiles. Rating PG-13. Genres Drama ...

  24. 'Winnie-the-Pooh Blood and Honey 2' Review

    The Big Picture. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 improves upon its predecessor by exploring Christopher Robin's trauma and providing answers to lingering questions. The sequel shifts focus to ...

  25. 'Love Lies Bleeding' Review: Kristen Stewart Finds Love, Drugs, Murder

    Even if 'Love Lies Bleeding' can get too juiced up from time to time, there's still plenty to admire about the Kristen Stewart-led pulp flick By Adam Nayman Mar 13, 2024, 8:45am EDT Share ...