Must Love Death

I am really not sure how to rate this movie. I would have to say the first 80% had me half asleep it was so boring. I felt like I was watching some romantic comedy chick flick that wasn't all that funny.

I'm not sure what the goal was for this movie since it seemed to be two completely different movies in one. I do have to say that I enjoyed that last part of it. It got pretty gory, the comedic parts were at least somewhat funny and for the most part stopped heading in the boring romantic comedy direction.

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I'm not a fan of torture porn, I'll say that straight up. I have largely avoided the whole phenomenon, as I am a bit of a wimp. With this one I slipped up, mostly because it comes disguised as a dark romantic comedy. It is funny and quirky, disgusting and disturbing in equal measure.

Mixing genres is both fun and innovative, as long as one simply rule is followed: it must be cohesive. The viewer can go from laughing one minute to crying the next (see Futurama episode "Jurassic Bark"), but not if the change comes out of nowhere. In Must Love Death the change from comedy to horror is incredibly jarring and it took me, for one, out of the moment.

Comedy and horror usually go together like peanut and chocolate, but in this film it just left a sloppy mess. I adore dark comedy, but the element of torture porn just made the laughter stop. I can imagine torture porn fans would be equally disappointed, because half the film really is devoted to a dark romantic comedy. This film could have worked. At first I wanted it to work, but beyond the halfway point I just started wanting it to end instead.

You kinda want to love, but it's just not possible. Well that's what happened to me. I love a dark sense of humour. Problem is, that it never plays completely like that, changing pace and tone quite often. And while it checks quite a few things of the list, what a movie like this should be (and show), it never feels completely in tune. And breaking the fourth wall as a joke, might sounded like a good idea. But it just didn't translate on screen.

So while the violence and the blood have high levels and might satisfy a certain crowd, if you are looking for something that not only tries, but actually achieves in something, you won't be amused. Since I'm guessing this is one of the first feature length films, the director has done, I'm also guessing, that once he finds a style of his own, there might be something worthwhile watching. Get the good ideas together and make them work that is. The actors tried their best though and cannot be blamed.

I found the 1st 15 minutes or so a bit rough at times, but once the film arrives at its "Oops, this is not quite the pact I imagined" scene, it's full throttle fun from there forward! Instinct suggests that mixing Romantic Comedy with the torture genre shouldn't work, but the films sense of humor is just right to hold these two together wonderfully. Performances are generally solid, though a couple of the European actors (in minor roles) struggle with the English language delivery of their lines. Still, the sold out Montreal audience I saw it with (at the Fantasia Film Festival's World Premiere screening) roared with laughter and applause.