No Stranger Than Love

I was kinda hyped to this one. It felt like the right when I first heard of it. The cast, the posters, the trailer, even the mysterious plot about a hole that just appears in the middle of the living room of some girl and swallows her boyfriend. I was sold, I wasn't expecting for nothing like a runner-up to the award season, but I was sold to a little indie funny and cute rom-com.

Well, high expectations has its downsides... The shitty thing, I can't be apologetic towards this movie... I tried hard to like it, but the movie wasn't able to hit the right nerve in no moment, and dude, I watch movies with an open heart...

The movie doesn't actually delivers any of the expected cuteness, comedy or quirkiness of the story that actually sounds lovely, funny and pretty intriguing. The cast, mostly Brie and Chatwin, as protagonist, aren't able to work all they can, and proved in previous works, 'cause the characters are pretty much flat, even more when the expositional dialogue tries to state the opposite. The supporting characters, unfortunately, are as much as shallow.

The movie does not tackle none of the big points it brings. It feels pretty much like the writer Steve Adams just had a good idea to a movie, but wasn't able to put it in the right way in the script, and the director Nick Wernham, in his feature directorial debut, just stuck with it 'cause it was what he had.

The movie failed to be one fine rom-com, and turns out just as a silly cautionary tale, that waste the chance to make great statements, about art, love, sex, fidelity, and people.

It's a pity the hole has no closure. This story is a bit quirky, moves to being satirical but in the end is quite simply sweet. Well cast, reasonably delivered and fun to watch. Worth taking a chance on.

This is not going to be to everyone's taste, but still, I am a bit taken aback by the low rating it has. It certainly is different, but I found it quietly charming and enchanting.

People all have their own ideas when it comes to love, but Love with a capital L is far more elusive and can slip through our grasp without us even knowing it.

The men in the village chase after their "ideal" love in the form of Alison Brie. She, it turn loves none of them, not even the coach who finally breaks down her resistance and falls into a hole in her living room for his trouble.

Meanwhile a mysterious stranger arrives to further muddy the waters.

The dialogue is quirky and amusing and adds to the enjoyment.

Guys in Spot Valley have a crush on popular school teacher Lucy Sherrington (Alison Brie). She has an affair with married football coach Clint Coburn (Colin Hanks). When she finally says "I love you", a hole opens up in the middle of her living room and Clint falls into the dark abyss. He's left floating somewhere deep inside and she struggles to get him out. Rydell Whyte (Justin Chatwin) is looking for Clint. He's a goon working for Clint's bookie.

It's actually kinda boring to have every man repeatedly hit on her. It's a funny idea that isn't that funny in its execution. That's my general feeling about this movie. The idea of this dark screwball comedy with Alison Brie is fun but it's dead pan flat for the most part. Chatwin tries to be quirky funny but can't get beyond quirky dark. Brie should be more flustered but she's too deer in the headlights. There is an obvious easy way to lie about the hole to his wife but Clint does it poorly. There is the theme of love but it's somewhat muddled. There is nothing overly objectionable but this doesn't engage me.

I really have to hand it to Alison Brie. She gives off an earnest charm that pairs nicely with the offbeat tone of the indie features she regularly participates in, whether comedy, drama, or otherwise. 'No stranger than love,' it must be said, is nothing if not offbeat. There's a clean, pleasant sensibility about the production - the sets, the wardrobe, Nick Wernham's direction, Michael LeBlanc's cinematography, and more - that dovetails neatly with the airs Brie gives off, and the lightness of the humor in Steve Adams' screenplay. Sure, it's a romantic comedy of a sort, but there's hardly any questioning that this is a decidedly quirky one.

Ninety minutes pass by surprisingly quickly as the picture delicately touches upon notions of appearance, perception, or expectations versus reality (what looks or sounds good belying something more shady or unwelcome, or vice versa; knowledge versus ignorance), and finding truth somewhere in the middle. Light on its feet, lighthearted - and arguably a little light in terms of content, too, discernible not least in those ways in which the writing is peculiarly direct. Yet even at that there's subtle, somewhat underhanded wit and intelligence in the dialogue and scene writing that makes this feel at once both a pure embodiment of indie conceptualizations of film, and in some measure perhaps a satire of it. That duality is borne in no small part from the sheer, utmost oddness that characterizes the entirety of the plot, so left-field that it's honestly very hard to meaningfully describe. There's a lot going on here, not in the narrative, but in what the narrative represents.

'No stranger than love' tries to say something a little more profound about, well, love, and I'm not sure how well it succeeds; as I've seen in other features, the message gets muddled in the effort to be idiosyncratic. Short of that, however, it's fun and softly enchanting all the while. It's well made, and written, and acted; the cast is obviously having a good time. It's rather beautifully shot, for that matter. Even compared to some of the other titles Brie has been involved with (or other cast members, of course), I don't know if this is quite as strong or essentail - but it's enjoyable, and a nice diversion for ninety minutes. Does it need to be anything else? Other folks will probably get more out of this than I did, but one way or another I do think it's worth checking out, especially for fans of those involved. Best recommended if you're looking for something relatively uncomplicated that you don't need to be actively invested in.