Love, Rosie (2014) Review

Love, Rosie (2014)
Plot: Two childhood friends struggle to fulfill their dreams and hopes for the future as well as facing their own relationship problems.
Director: Christian Ditter.
Cast: Sam Claflin, Lily Collins, Christian Cooke, Tamsin Egerton, Suki Waterhouse, Jaime Winstone.

Love, Rosie is a British/German co-production and the latest work of German director Christian Ditter. Those of you who have read Cecilia Ahern’s best seller Where Rainbows End will probably know that Love, Rosie is an adaptation of the book by Ahern.

It all starts out with two friends, Alex Stewart (Sam Claflin) and Rosie Dunne (Lily Collins), who are first childhood friends, then school-mates and in the end university students. As the story progresses we sense that their friendship grows into something more.

I don’t want to include any spoilers in my review so I will only add that Alex goes to university in Boston to study Medicine (Med School) and their lives just get more and more complicated. All the while we are left to wonder: ‘what are they doing, why can’t they just tell each other how they feel?!’ It’s infuriating and frustrating at times to watch two characters who don’t have a clue about what’s right under their noses.

It is a film about two young people and how they deal with life’s everyday routine, love and normal problems, as well as their undeniable passion and attraction towards one another which grows stronger as the years go by. As the story unfolds you can actually feel the characters’ love for one another and their sadness as they struggle to be together. It’s then that you realise that things change and sometimes life is not that simple.

I particularly enjoyed the soundtrack, composed by Ralf Wengenmayr. The songs were carefully chosen and I loved the theme music; it was especially touching and fit for the mood of the story.

On the downside, I must say that following the main characters’ lives from their childhood friendship until their thirties can be a bit difficult – the time jumps don’t help in this regard. Also, it’s quite hard to believe that Sam Claflin and Lily Collins can go from looking like 16 year olds to fully-grown adults just by changing their hairstyles. I found the story quite interesting, but the actors failed to convey the characters’ strong emotions to the full. Apart from the wedding sequence and Rosie’s heartbreaking speech, I find them difficult to believe.

So, all in all, you may want to give it a try if you’re a chick-flick fan, but don’t expect a great movie by any means.

13 /24