Love in Focus

Jenna (Nicola Posener) is a TV actress who's show is cancelled so she retreats to a mountain cabin for a week. Unbeknown to her Chris (Dan Fowlks) who's parents own the cabin, also shows up and the two get snowed in. There follows some love tennis but will it end up a match?

The story is an old, old one like most romances are: boy meets girl, they fall in love, there's some misunderstanding and they split, and later everything gets cleared up and they either fall bac in love, or they realise someone else was meant for them all along.

So the story is OK, but the acting while having some bright spots, is mostly B rated soap acting. The filming and editing is fine although throughout the film the there are very few wide shots: they're all closeups which is a bit too much in your face for me. But makeup is truly horrendous. It was actually so bad it spoiled some scenes.

It's easy to watch, made for HDTV I would guess, and easy to predict but it's not a film you would ever watch again. I gave it a 5 and that was being very generous.

So first off this is clearly a romance movie. As an empath I'm probably one of the few men enjoying this genre.

There is not even comedy in it. In case you expect action, drama, suspense or cheap laughs - you're in the wrong place.

As a romance it clearly works. It's a feel good, enjoyable and relatable little romance on a budget.

Even though it was clear for me from the start who is in love with whom the characters don't know yet so we watch them realizing it slowly. This is actually intriguing.

When do the sparks fly exactly? Which gesture, word or break make the difference? Love in Focus really focuses on tiny nuances.

Sometimes it's too obvious for me yet for general audiences it probably won't.

Even though you know and expect them to fall for each other you still have to really look closely when and how it happens.

Thus this movie is epic in the original sense of the word. Even though we know the outcome we wonder "how do they get there"?

The drawbacks for most people will be that the movie is quite slow paced and most scenes play inside. So we don't see much happening or even the mountain scenery a lot.

There are no real problems or conflicts so we have the eerie feeling that it's "too good to be true". We're just conditioned to expect the next dramatic turn of events from other movies or our beliefs that "life is hard" and other popular myths.

Do you enjoy happy people becoming even happier? Then you will love this. For depressing, brutal or ridiculous scenes look up your average Hollywood production.

When you make it till the end this movie will make you a bit happier as well. If you can't hold your attention that long I recommend some meditation techniques to get over your attention deficit.

7.6 stars.

Surprisingly good. Starts off feeling like a b-rated movie for sure. The sound quality and sound editing were very faulty throughout, which was a bummer, however the story is wonderful and the acting is actually really good. All of the actors brought their best, except maybe the secondary male, he needed a bit more work. But the two leads are great together and there is a lot of chemistry. The movie producer mother and talent agent father were very refreshing roles as they melded into the story very nicely. This film has a lot of funny moments, surprisingly witty and clever conversations and it wasn't a fluke, I laughed about 4 times, really good laughs, akin to the humor I can recall only from the best films. Unfortunately, this appears to be an unknown movie, but it's a hidden gem, the best kind of surprise. Better advertising maybe, because "Love in Focus" needs to be seen by a larger audience, who will come to love it like I have. Sure, it's not absolutely amazing, thus less than 8 stars, but anything written this good and with great acting deserves high praise.

Two atractive people stuck in a cabin, so obviously they start as adverseries, but soon abandon their prejudice. Become fast friends and fall in love.

The movie is full of clishe's - the mother that constantly tries to get her son married so she'll have grandchildren, the quirky friend, the snow-ball fight (are you five years old?) the confution with the old boifriend.

The lead actors are fairly good, and have good chemistry, but the other characters are stereotypical caricatures, played with exaggeration. And there is no chemistry between the other couples.

I didn't suffer, but finished the movie with a feeling I wasted my time.

The movie is very good, I think it has the necessary ingredients to be a perfect romcom. Nicola Posener plays a fantastic role and as always in all of her work she gives us that feeling of the moment. It must have been a bit strange for her: "an actress acting like an actress." It has nice, everyday details with a well-treated touch of sweetness. Perhaps if I have a complaint or criticism, I am sorry to say that Dan Fowl is inexpressive, without emotion and without feeling, his face did not change throughout the film, this means that the scenes that should be a certain sentimental tension are completely lost.