The Book of Love

I chanced upon The Book of Love while channel-switching, saw Maisie Williams, looked for the repeat and watched it. I very nearly didn't because the synopsis made it look like a Hallmark production (bereaved architect heals himself by helping troubled teenager build a raft to sail round the world) but I thought, "What the hell, it's Arya" and watched it. I'm glad I did, because although it contains a slew of "heartwarming" clichés, it plays around with them in a very quirky way, to the extent that it's almost but not quite a satire on the genre. But there's more than playing around with clichés: the relationship between the two main characters is lovely, and there are some thought-provoking moments, though it's easy to skip over them.

"Most stories ain't true, and usually don't start where you'd expect." Henry (Sudeikis) is a boring husband who does everything by the book every though his wife tries to change him. After a tragic accident takes her like Henry is lost and has no idea what to do. When he meets the girl (Williams) that his wife was talking about he decides to help her complete her dream, and hopefully find himself in the process. This is a very good movie that really shows how heartfelt Sudeikis can be. There are very few movies that have come out recently that show true heart and how good people can truly be. This is one of them. The movie itself is, although very predictable and generic, good and very much worth seeing. After watching weeks and weeks of depressing movies like Manchester By The Sea, Nocturnal Animals and Moonlight this one seems like a much needed break. Although this is also very sad in some parts this one seemed to have what the others didn't…hope. Overall, worth seeing and I think its only a few years away from Sudeikis really breaking out and getting an Oscar nomination. I give this a high B.

Maisie Williams is a superb actress in everything she does,including this & Jason Sudekis does an excellent drama role. It's a wonderful movie, put together well,explaining how these 2 different people, 1 teenager& 1 adult came together through his wife & built a raft together so the girl could continue her fathers voyage. Could have done without Jason's 2 handyman, or at least the nickname for one (dumbass) & the fact that one doesn't speak any English, but other than that it kept my interest and that's a good thing 😊 It had a little bit of everything in my opinion..comedy,drama, adventure....it was happy,sad,made me laugh & cry. I recommend it! Not everyone will have the same opinion. Just give it a try.

In short, I liked this movie a lot; it made me laugh and cry, though not without a few eye-rolls in between. That being said, I think it deserves more than the 5.5 rating--at least 6.5/7.

I agree in part with both the reviews on here (the 2 star, and the 8 star) in that sure, it was cheesy at times and the writing often struck me as contrived, but the superb acting from our two leads carried the movie to heights it wouldn't have achieved otherwise.

I'm a Sudeikis fan and as usual he delivered a solid performance. I believed and felt what his character was going through--the paralyzing, confused helplessness of loss and subsequent searching for understanding.

Maisie Williams is awesome. I felt like even though Sudeikis got more screen time, Williams was the star here and kept me intrigued throughout. Such a great, authentic actress.

Overall, really enjoyed the movie and would definitely recommend it.

With a pretty decent cast, this film has enough to keep you watching but never going to be good enough that you'll be talking about it after it's finished. Not surprising that I actually watched from one of those free channels apps that usually play "handed out" movies that don't get viewers elsewhere. Not a bad film by any means and both Sudeikis and Maisie Williams are thoroughly solid throughout.