Professor Love

It was a delight to see Brosnan and Hayek together again ten years on from "After the Sunset" (2004) and their chemistry remains intact.

The cinematography is excellent, with picture-postcard imagery of both London and LA, yet there is no saccharine to be found anywhere in the screenplay, which makes for an eye-candy feast that nourishes rather than nauseates.

Essentially a very well-written, grown-up, romantic film with beautiful scenery, attractive actors, solid dialogue, and a feel-good ending that is only a teeny bit contrived, but not enough to annoy.

This would have scored higher with me if not for the unfortunate casting of Malcolm McDowell, who I personally dislike intensely. His overacting and unsubtle characterisation was, as usual for him, only skin deep, and strained my suspension of disbelief to the point of discomfort.

I never get a sense from McDowell that he ever takes his characters any deeper than a two-dimensional caricature, which is what Brosnan was doing in the early days of his career. But unlike the older veteran, Brosnan has noticeably evolved and developed in his craft, and as he gets older and more grizzled, he taps ever more interesting depths.

Overall, though, this was a fab movie, and one that I'd happily watch again.

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.

Review: I quite enjoyed this cleverly written Rom-Com, because it had different elements that kept it interesting throughout. It is a bit predictable but the acting was realistic and the adult humour was quite amusing in parts. Its about a highly respected professor, Richard Haig (Pierce Brosnan), who teaches 18th century romantic poetry in a way that the students of today can appreciate. His father Gordon (Macolm McDowell) was also a professor at highly respected Trinity College in Cambridge, so he seeks the same accomplishments that his father achieved before he retired. He's also picked up his father's womanising ways, by falling for one of his students, Kate (Jessica Alba), who shocks him with the news that she is pregnant. She decides to move back to Malibu so she can raise there child, Jake (Duncan Joiner) and her sister Olivia (Salma Hayek) decides to move to New York to pursue her career in writing romantic books. As Richard wants to be close to his son, he also moves to Malibu and he takes a job in a school, teaching students who don't really care for his specialised subject. He then finds out that his wife is having an affair with a younger man, who she has fallen in love with, so he moves into the annex of the house to be close to his son and to keep his green card. After a while, Olivia also moves into the house because she has caught her boyfriend with another woman and while Kate and her new boyfriend Brian (Ben McKenzie) are away, she grows closer to Richard and after a passionate night together, they soon realise that there feelings for each other are more than what was expected. After having to leave America because his green card had run out, Richard spends time with his dying father, whose last wish is for his son to get back with Olivia. This film definitely has its emotional moments, with a witty script which was well put together by the director. Macolm McDowell's foul mouth character, made me laugh and the relationship between Brosnan and his son was touching. After watching Pierce Brosnan kick butt in the earlier Bond movies, I'm still struggling to take his comedic roles that seriously but you can't fault his performances which are always top class. Some of the situations that he gets himself in, were a bit silly but the overall concept of the film was watchable and enjoyable in parts. Watchable!

Round-Up: Pierce Brosnan, 62 and still looking dashing, hasn't reached the heights that he reached when he was playing Bond but he is still highly respected in Hollywood, even though his movies haven't made that much money of late. Films like the Love Punch with Emma Thompson, Love is All We Need, Survivor and A Long Way Down, haven't really blown up at the box office and some of them went straight to DVD but thats not to say that they were bad movies. I personally would like to see him play another "Bond" type role because of his cool persona, which really worked in the 007 franchise. Anyway, this movie was directed by Tom Vaughan, 46, who also brought you What Happens in Vegas with Ashton Kutcher and Extraordinary Measures with Harrison Ford but most of his experience has been TV. He was lucky to get Salma Hayek and Jessica Alba together for this project but they both have been out of the spotlight of late. Hayek hasn't had a major role in a movie since the terrible Grown Ups 2 in 2013 and I wasn't that impressed with Everly. She still looks great at 49 and she usually puts in great performances, along with Alba, 34, who recently starred in the Entourage movie. Anyway, this movie is a decent watch with some good performances but if your not into your Rom-Com's, then this movie isn't for you.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their comedy/romance movies starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Jessica Alba and Malcolm McDowell. 5/10

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.