‘Love Again’ Review: Far-Fetched Romance Finds Celine Dion Ready for Her Close-Up … and Her Comeback – Variety
We’ve all heard Celine Dion’s “My Coronary heart Will Go On,” however if you happen to actually hearken to the lyrics — “Love can contact us one time, And final for a lifetime … Close to, far, wherever you’re / I consider that the center does go on” — the tragedy they describe applies to extra than simply comely Rose studying to reside with out her blue-eyed cabin boy. Eighteen years after “Titanic” made her a mega-star, Dion misplaced her husband and supervisor, René Angélil, and the singer has made no secret of her battle to maneuver on since.
An old-school, straight-faced studio romance that includes 5 new songs from Ms. Dion, writer-director Jim Strouse’s “Love Once more” is all about such therapeutic — to the extent that if it have been a ebook as a substitute of a film, it will be filed within the self-help part. Liberally tailored from the 2016 German movie “Texts for You” (“SMS für Dich”), the more-creepy-than-cute plot focuses on a grieving New York youngsters’s ebook illustrator who sparks up a brand new relationship with the entire stranger who’s inherited her lifeless boyfriend’s telephone quantity. “Actually, Madly, Deeply” this isn’t.
From the patron electronics firm (I imply, film studio) that introduced you “The Emoji Film” comes a feature-length commercial for the facility of cell telephones to deliver folks collectively. Cynical as which will sound, the film is at the very least real about its emotional journey, making it an impressed option to enlist Dion to function each refrain and mascot for romantic leads Mira (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Rob (Sam Heughan).
Two years after watching the love of her life struck down by a self-driving automotive, or else crushed by a fleet of scooters (we’ll by no means know, since stated accident happens proper in entrance of Mira’s eyes, however outdoors of our view), Chopra Jonas’ character continues to be having a tough time letting go. With out realizing that Rob is on the receiving finish, she begins flooding his new work telephone with wincingly intimate texts — messages about how she misses the odor of her soulmate, and her want to be bare collectively.
Rob’s a (severely underworked) music critic, heartbroken in his personal manner, who’s nonetheless getting over being dumped by his fiancée on the eve of their marriage ceremony. As an alternative of being aggravated by the messages, he’s touched by their sincerity, to the extent that he might even be falling for whoever’s sending them. So, like every unusual man, he decides to stalk their supply, utilizing clues from Mira’s texts to intercept her IRL. In a single scene, he seems on whereas she suffers via a disastrous blind date with an inside-joke visitor star.
Enter Celine Dion, whom Rob’s been assigned to profile for the only-in-the-movies newspaper the place he “works.” Performed by the Scottish “Outlander” star with a disconcerting, what-is-he-hiding stare, he brings an odd vitality to the function. Rob may very well be Alexander Skarsgård’s serial-killer sibling. The one distinction between this man and all of the chiseled-abs dudes Mira swipes previous on Bumble is that Rob wears shirts — although they don’t seem to have been washed in a couple of days.
Edgier than the movie’s audience as he’s, Rob doesn’t assume a lot of Dion, dismissing her lyrics as sentimental and trite — which even a Celine Dion super-fan (like myself) would concede to be true. Dion’s energy is in her supply: the pure, chest-thumping conviction with which she howls strains like, “The place does my coronary heart beat now? / The place is the sound / That solely echoes via the evening?” Slouchy and unshaven, Rob exhibits as much as interview the singer, and he or she turns the tables: “You’ve got the presence of a pair of used underwear,” she quips, her Canadian accent undercutting the comedian timing and chew of that barb. (The place’s Cher if you want her?) The film can be extra attention-grabbing with a few of that “Satan Wears Prada” venom, whereas Dion comes off … nicely, first rate. Therefore, the self-help vibe.
There’s not a lot chemistry between Chopra Jonas and Heughan — and the way may there be, since they’re caught in a one-way dialog for half the film? Plus, Mira’s texts are simply so unhappy. At one level, after Rob spends the evening, Mira wakes as much as hear him speaking together with her youthful sister Suzy (Sofia Barclay), and it appears for a second that maybe he’s discovered a greater match — somebody with the capability to smile. However Mira should certainly discover a technique to love once more, and there appears to be potential, if they’ll simply get previous their One Huge Secret, which would require an absurdly unprofessional demonstration of affection.
Once more, that’s the place love guru Dion is useful, enjoying a barely fictionalized model of herself as she shares particulars from her real-life relationship with René. Although we see her sturdy survivor aspect, Dion’s vulnerability stays one in every of her most adorable property — the exact same high quality that makes her persona an excessive amount of for some folks to take. “Love Once more” was by no means meant for the skeptics, whereas admirers will respect the comeback side of her first movie function. It’s a big-screen romance that aspires to creating followers really feel the best way Dion’s music does, like their hearts can go on.
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