This Time Next Year

Come on Britain, you, who has given us Notting Hill, Bridget Jones, Run Fat Boy Run, About Time, Sliding Doors, Man Up and so many more.... R E A L LY? This romance is unoriginal, unconvincing and shallow. It even sucks the usual "romcom character stereotypes" that would make any failing brit romcom bearable.

Let's start with our Heroine: A frighteningly skeletal looking, badly dressed, "plain Jane" would not be just a plain Jane, in a good romcom. Cookson is not charming and so amateurish in her acting that i blame the Director, Nick Moore, to let this pass.

It might have helped if the filmmakers injected some underlying glam in her terribly shabby dressing and hair style.

The makers also missed out to portray the "eccentric best friend" with the usual originality.

Instead, she is drowned in wigs, uttering boring gaffs and dressed like a character from Charlie's Choc Factory.

I must say the display of bad wigs wont end here, and that the plot is even worse than the wigs. However the male protagonist, Laviscount, will make it worthwhile to suffer this story through. He has more relatable performance and the right amount of vulnerability, he even tackles the chemistry if only.....

To preface this review, usually I love a good rom-com. But this movie had a thin, senseless plot and a really bad case of overacting that it just wasn't very enjoyable. Sophie Cookson, playing the lead and unlucky character Minnie, was unfortunately so dramatic and squeaky it became annoying. The actor playing Quinn, Lucien Laviscount from Emily in Paris, was slightly more understated but still was exuding borderline school-play level acting. I would hope it was a result of poor direction, as I don't remember this poor acting in their previous works that I've seen. The supporting cast were just okay.

Beyond the acting, I just don't think the plot translated very well into a movie, like it couldn't create a balance between whimsy and realism. It definitely wasn't nailing being a comedy. I haven't read it, but perhaps the book was better.

Either way, maybe the film just wasn't my cup of tea and others will enjoy this type of cheesy acting and direction. If you don't though, I'd give this one a skip.

It feels like the movie lasts the whole year!

Minnie is an insufferable brat that believes her life is just a strike of bad luck, until she meets a guy who was born exactly the same day as her and may have stolen her luck.

That is the premise of a potentially interesting romantic comedy, but then starts to go sooo slow and nothing seems to happen

The parents characters are good actors but their storylines are not developed at all, you never really understand what was their point in the story.

I still don't know if it was a comedy or a drama but in any case it was a bad movie. Minnie is not a relatable character is clumsy and annoying and you feel like Quinn is actually too good for her.

Strange experience - the main girl is playing Keira Knightley (why?). This film has really good cast so the quality of writing, directing and filming is a little disappointing. Although it is much better than any of the American Christmas Netflix productions it is also far too long. The mothers of the main characters however are a triumph! It's worth watching just to enjoy their performance. The ending is better than expected though, so if you have nothing better to do you may as well enjoy this romantic comedy/ Christmas movie but I doubt it will join the classics - nowhere near the quality of the Holiday or the Last Christmas.

I feel for the actors who get put into these terrible films they look cheap, edited badly, tonally all over the place.

The script wasn't all that bad but it was just all very lifeless and the cast were mismatched. The main actress was a bit over the top it was like she was in a whole other film, the main actor looked like he was going to fall asleep any minute. Questionable voices, accents and personalities from everyone else it was like a cartoon England, but that's pretty standard from films made with American money.

Surprised to see the credits of the director expected it to be by someone with less experience.

I've watched better films on Pluto romance.