Professor Love

"You can leave me, but I am not leaving that boy." Richard (Brosnan) is a college professor who teaches the classics and has a young and beautiful wife. When he finds out she is leaving him his life is shattered. He throws everything into his son and trying to get a new job. Things get complicated when he starts to notice Olivia (Hayek) in a different way and a problem with his Visa comes up. Now Richard must try to get a job, stay in the country, and find love with someone he never expected to. Judging by the synopsis you may think this sounds like a cookie cutter movie, and your right. The movie is pretty predictable and not original but it is funny and very watchable. Pierce Brosnan is a great choice for this and he really saves the movie from being something overly generic. There really isn't a whole lot to say about this since there has been a million movies with this same idea but even so this is still a good movie and defiantly worth a watch. I did like it but I am also a big Pierce Brosnan fan. Overall, nothing original but entertaining and funny. Worth seeing at least once. I give this a B.

This film is about a British university professor who falls on love with an American student. She becomes pregnant, they all move to USA to start a new life, by unfortunately things go wrong and they separate soon afterwards.

"How to Make Love Like an Englishman" has a comedic title, but it is not comedic at all. The three main characters are not only unsympathetic, but actually obnoxious. No one remains faithful to their partners, everyone is foul mouthed. People act irresponsibly at just about every occasion, such as ruining the alcoholic anonymous meeting, or playing with the sister when the green card appointment is in a few days. If Richard really wants to stay in USA, he should at least act a bit more responsibly. Many things in the film don't make sense either, such as Kate staying at the house next door to let her sister take care of the son.

Avoid this film. It's not funny at all, actually it's infuriating to watch.

First let me address the majority of reviews here. It always prove true that many people who review movies probably don't get movies. Countless times I see reviews that demand the movie conform to their desires and expectations, rather than the reviewer letting the story take form and come to it's full shape, and then look for an understanding. Heaven forbid a movie should stray too far from the cookie-cutter.

I saw it said elsewhere, mockingly, what a great idea it is for a rom-com about a 60 year old professor and a 20 year old co-ed. Clearly they missed the point, since the movie itself shows the complications in this, and the point is NOT the romantic entanglement between the two, but instead about chasing dreams and growing up. It's about the thin line between them.

Pierce Brosnan's character is shown as being extremely successful...when he's in his world. He chooses to step out of his world, and in this new world he enters, one of a seeming fantasy, he looses his potency. It's psychological, as well as borrowing from classic fairy-tale themes. And it's not super deep, but it's not surface level either. It gives a viewer enough to think about, without being an exhausting exercise.

To further underscore this, in his world, the beautiful female is doting and filled with admiration. Once he leaves his world and enters hers, she becomes a bit of a power mad shrew. But he's faced with other factors and some are sympathetic issues, others are off-putting. He's a great dad, and was even a loyal husband, and this makes him sympathetic, but he's never had to exist in a place that didn't cater to him, and some of his ways of dealing with life are childish and embarrassing.

The only real problem I saw with this movie, and it was a major one, was that the person who cheated never had to apologize, or even act remorseful. I expected there to be SOME contrition at some point, but it was never addressed. This would have been bad enough had it just been left to the audience to hold the impression that they were a selfish turd, but as the movie drives towards it's conclusion, the other characters begin apologizing to the cheater for things that weren't a tenth as bad as the infidelity that had taken place. This really stood out and kept me from being totally taken in by the ending resolutions of the movie, but it didn't keep it from being worth watching; just really frustrated with how often movies gloss over major issues as if the audience is too dumb to catch on. In fact, I'd almost wonder if there were some scenes on the cutting room floor that tackled the whole angle but they felt would take too long to cover.

This movie is NOT a rom-com. It is a light-hearted romantic drama that assesses life decisions and directions that probably aren't relatable to anyone still in their younger years. It's not super-deep, but it has some allegory and symbolism if you know how see it.

Hayek, Alba and Brosnan work it out. I didn't have any idea what I was expecting with this movie, but I was pleasantly surprised and pleased. It had some good humor, which is the COM part and it had some intimacy, which is the ROM part. That sums it up for ROMCOM. It is an enjoyable, light-heart-ed movie. It is also a great date flick. Of course, I adore my Latinas! The little boy was excellent in his role as well. The acting was great, especially the father's eye's when he looked at his son (Brosnan) with great intent. I've never seen such a piercing set of eyes with intensity. I rated this a bit higher to see if we can get it to a Solid 6 Stars. I don't care for enjoyable movies being below 6 Stars. If you like ROMCOM's, you will enjoy it as well.

I believe Pierce Brosnan is perfect for the role he had in this film: a university English teacher that is both lecherous and intellectual, romantic and a total ass, a good father and a terrible partner, yet lovable and accessible nonetheless. Such a character has a fantastic potential to create a wonderful story.

However, the story was sub par, the other characters cardboard and so many opportunities were missed out again and again. If I were to rate this film on the characters, I would have to give an 8 or even 9 to Brosnan's, but something close to 3 for Jessica Alba's. Salma Hayek's wasn't a lot better either and Malcolm McDowell, as the father, was 0-dimensional! I understand old actors get fewer jobs, but have you seen any of this guy's films? Can't you see how much better he could have been if given some good material?

Bottom line: it's an American Britspoitation film, based entirely on Pierce Brosnan's charm, with a little bit of McDowell sprinkled in the cast to get old people like me interested. So much story potential and so many talented actors completely wasted by Hollywood accountants.