Rating: C-
Dir: Anmol Mishra
Star: Peter Hayes, Anmol Mishra, Susanne Richter, Connor Dowling
It’s rare I’m so confidently able to pick one element of a movie and say, “There’s the problem.” But in this case, I have no hesitation in pointing the finger of blame at the soundtrack, which is so terrible as to be attempting actively to knee-cap proceedings. This is apparent from the opening scene, depicting a difficult customer at the antique store where Sachin (Mishra) works. The soundtrack keeps punctuating things with an incessant commentary of musical stings, up to and including SadTrombone.wav. It’s as obnoxious as a movie with a laugh track – or, worse, someone next to you in the cinema, jabbing your ribs and going, “Laugh! Why aren’t you laughing?”
This kind of thing might be acceptable, if the film was broad-based humour. It’s not. It’s instead, a romantic ensemble drama, lightly sprinkled with comedy and dance numbers. There are three main couples, navigating the shoals of love, in a way similar to Love Actually in its multiple threads. Sachin and homeless ballerina Elisa (Richter); his colleague in the store, George (Hayes), who pretends to be a playboy, yet has unexpressed feelings for its owner, Lilli (Gabrielle Chan); and gay couple, Zac (Dowling) and Alex, who are heading towards marriage, albeit with uncertainty on a number of fronts, from commitment to Zac’s reluctance to come out to his parents. These all have their moments which should resonate.
Typically, they come whenever who is in charge of the obnoxious soundtrack has wandered off to the bathroom for a few minutes. Those include the dance numbers at its heart. They feel inspired by the ‘A Lovely Night’ sequence in La La Land, in the way they exist both in the real world, albeit enhanced by digital effects, and in imagination. I felt the routines work particularly well for the Sachin and Elisa combo. His slick-footed skills in these sequences are thoroughly and engagingly at odds with his gauche clumsiness in everyday life, and tendency to ramble on about bicycle maintenance. Anyone who has been tongue-tied around the object of their affection will be able to empathize.
What is above reproach is the absolute sincerity of intent here. Mishra is clearly a romantic at heart, and generally, the film stays on this side of saccharine, with an awareness that the road to true love is rarely smooth. However, when it attempts to cross genres and go for drama – or, god forbid, comedy – his hand is considerably less assured, and the results are clearly less effective. That’s even discounting the honking which permeates the soundtrack: did I make clear my absolute hatred of that? This bears repeating and stressing because, unfortunately, it is the element I’m going to remember most. Not the typically effective romance, or imaginatively staged dance routines. It’s the blaring “BWAH-WAH” every time anybody says anything remotely amusing, which will stick in my mind – and that’s a shame. Next time, I hope Mishra has more faith in his dialogue, actors and audience.
[The film is available to stream now, through services such as Amazon Prime and YouTube]