The Book of Love

This film tells the story of a man who lost his pregnant wife in a car accident. He takes his late wife's incidental remark seriously, and help a local homeless girl. Together they build a raft to cross the ocean.

The plot sounds like it is a touching film about grief and healing. However, the reality is that it is more about irrationality and insanity. I can hardly believe a successful architect would abandon his job and embark on a clearly nonsensical project. The aim of the girl's maritime journey is a tools to the viewers, but in a fragmented and ineffective way. It does not make me feel that she has to go to the ocean. I don't understand what she has to gain to make that maritime trip, except to go on a suicidal mission. The worst part of the plot is that the causality of the events does not make sense. The person who caused everything should be doing the atonement, but it is not the case in the film. Hence, I unfortunately find the film making little sense.

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.

I stumbled across this charming little movie last night.

Plot sin A Paragraph: Henry (Jason Sudiekis) an introverted architect. Who is grieving the death of his wife in a car accident, sets out to help Millie (Maisie Williams), a homeless teen, who has plans for an ambitious project.

I didn't know anything about this movie, and had never heard anything about it. It was starting on TV and in the absence of anything else to watch, I gave it a go, based on the fact that I think Sudiekis can be funny in the right role, and I love Maisie Williams in Game Of Thrones, and Cyberbully (a movie I feel should be shown in every school)

It's a wonderfully charming movie, that had me welling up. It's a well told, well acted movie that hits all the right spots and has a nice score too!! Both lead actors are heartbreaking!!

It just goes to show that you don't need a remake, a franchise, huge budget or loads of special effects!! An interesting story with great performances are all that is needed to make a good movie.

It's a shame the movie only got a small release with no promotion, and nobody seen it.

Let's be completely honest and upfront, The Book of Love is not a good movie. It's not even a movie I would recommend to people. However, it's heart is in the right place. I know the film was made for people who are going through tragedies and are looking to move on. That's fine and all, but the execution is far from where it could have been with an idea like this. The Book of Love deals with two people, Henry and Millie, both with tragic pasts and looking for something to keep them going through difficult times. They share a bond together over tragedy, and decide to band together and build a boat to deal with their loss, and possibly go on an adventure of a lifetime. What follows is a serious of mostly convoluted events with several cheesy conflicts and dialogue that more or less lead to a B-movie version of Life of Pi meets The Way Way Back? Both are modern-day classics in my opinion, and The Book of Love has nowhere near the gravitas or emotional effect those films do, but I think that was certainly the tone they were going for. The problem is, the film never earns its emotional beats. Instead, it feels more like a glorified hallmark drama, just with great actors. The only major positive is Justin Timberlake's score, and yes I said Justin Timberlake. Why in the world I decided to watch this film, I'm not entirely sure, probably because of Maisie Williams, but it's not a film I will ever revisit.

4.4/10