Love Sarah

Judging from the other reviews, this movie seems to have divided opinions. From a purely technical point of view, in my opinion, the movie is very well made. A nice story, well structured screenplay, and good performances from a quite impressive cast. My guess is the themes explored around loss and grief may not be everyone's cup of tea but it really depends what you are looking for. Again though, I thought it was a nice little watch.

I like to start with the positives about a film I review after all 6/10 is an average to good score from me . I'll begin with the delicious cakes and pastries that feature in the film and are provided by the bestselling food writer and restaurateur author and chef Yotam Ottolenghi especially the Matcha Mille crepe cake used in the plot.

I was amazed to read this very light weight script that took 3 people to write Eliza Schroeder (also director ) a mistake in my opinion as this is her first major film .Other writers were Mahalia Rimmer, and Jake Brunger who also wrote the screenplay.

The film is about a young woman who enlists the help of her mother's best friend and her eccentric estranged grandmother to fulfil her late mother's dream of opening a bakery in Notting Hill. It is now shooting in London.

The Director Elizabeth Schroeder said in an interview about the film "Having lost my mother whilst developing the film, my perspective on the outcome and the story I wanted to tell changed. Creating a story that was uplifting and touching whilst dealing with loss in my life became very important to me." and the film is dedicated to her late mother which is fitting. Luckily for Love Sarah, its cast abounds in talent and their chemistry is enjoyable to watch and easy to root for. The kind of feel good family drama Love Sarah wants to be is somewhere in this film, but hidden under layers of unnecessary character backstory and too many plot threads.

Celia Imrie as Mimi is delightful as the bittersweet Grandmother and the Supporting cast of Rupert Penry -Jones as Matthew in a relaxed romantic role of not much substance is also good. I also enjoyed Shelley Conn as Isabella and Shannon Tarbet as Clarissa the granddaughter. I was only talking about mediocre script writing recently and this film would fit in that category like a beautifully decorated that when tasted sometimes disappoints when tasted " Love Sarah " to my taste is just average.

This is a lovely story where you see beautiful cakes, lovely people and lots of happiness for everyone. What is there not to like!

Definitely not a comedy, but has funny moments, more romance than anything, well written and acted story. I wasn't disappointed.

I read the synopsis and liked the sound of this film and it didn't disappoint. I'm not sure what the lower rating critics were expecting but this is just a lovely watchable film and is 'what it says on the tin'!