Book of Love - Film Review

Book of Love - Film Review

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Posted 2022-03-10 by Jenfollow

Book of Love stars Sam Claflin and Verónica Echegui and will be screening in cinemas Thursday 10 March 2022. With a run time of 106 minutes, it focuses on the story of Henry Copper. Uptight and repressed, Henry is not very successful as a writer and his new book The Sensible Heart is going nowhere fast. A sparsely-attended promotional book reading event of his dull new book would be an overstatement when in attendance there were fewer people than you could count on the fingers of one hand - his book is immediately put on sale moments later. You can imagine his surprise when his agent Jen calls him and tells him that his book is a surprise number one bestseller.

Henry is shocked. He's even more shocked when Jen tells him it's a huge hit in, of all places, Mexico. He is immediately flown over there where his book has been translated for a promotional trail in Mexico. His translator is not a distinguished old gentleman as he first assumed, but his young granddaughter, Maria. Unbeknownst to Henry, though the poster advertising the book is a dead giveaway for him that something is amiss, Maria has sexed up his original text, turning it into a steamy, erotic novella. All hell breaks loose, sparks fly, and tempers flare. They still have a 10-hour road trip, salivating fans and knickers on the stage to conquer.


This is a bilingual rom-com road trip with a Mexican flavour but nothing you've not experienced before in its formulaic storyline and romantic comedy clichés. It has all the elements - handsome but uptight Brit, fiery, feisty Mexican female lead, but it never truly delivers on it to satisfaction. Sam Claflin is no stranger to playing the romantic lead but there is no magic to his character here as he bumbles along being stiff and starchy, constantly bewildered, stuffily dressed and recoiling from anything remotely sexual. It's like all sexual energy has been sucked out of him. To his credit, he draws you back in with the warmth of his character in the softer, emotional scenes.

Verónica Echegui as Maria is the complete opposite of Henry. She's warm, fiery, vulnerable and is given room to display all the dramatic emotions in her role, along with a background story that makes her more three dimensional than Claflin's cardboard character. As an actor, she's been given more opportunities to display her craft and she manages to shine. On the romantic side, overall, there is very little time given for the development of Henry and Maria's feelings for each other. It just sort of happens. There's not near enough chemistry there to speak of.

Lucy Punch as Jen plays a small role but she's formidable at what she does and does it well as a veteran of comedy. Overall, this film may be sweet and well-intentioned with a few humorous moments but falls short in its delivery. At best, it's a pleasant enough entertaining film to watch as long as you don't scratch the slightest bit beneath its contrived surface, and at worst, it's pretty forgettable.





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83595 - 2023-06-11 06:43:31

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