Rating : ⭐️
Genre: Romance
Year: 2025
Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes
Director: Celine Song
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal
Kid rating: PG-15
The first scene of this film makes you think you have a good one; a Friday night entertainer with a sense of humor AND good-looking leads. But then things go south. Not immediately though. At first we’re drawn in watching lovely Lucy (Dakota Johnson) make her living as a match-maker extraordinaire. She’s had 9 matches turn into marriages so far, which is apparently a great hit rate.
At one such wedding she meets Harry, the brother of the groom. Harry (Pedro Pascal), in match-maker parlance, is a unicorn, just like his brother – handsome, very well-to-do, charming, and without any bad habits. When he professes an interest in dating Judy, she tells him that that might not be such a good idea since she plans to marry the next man she dates. He is undeterred.
At the same wedding she also bumps into an old flame, cater waiter John (Chris Evans). Riding with John in his old car after the wedding, they catchup – John is still struggling in his acting career at 37, perpetually broke and living with roommates to afford NYC rents.
As Judy begins to date the wealthy Harry, she also feels the familiar tug towards John. Does money matter? Does love? And must one choose between the two?
Such an interesting premise, with such delectable stars! You’d think this would have been the romcom of the season. Unfortunately not. It’s a dud. The characters are flat. Also Dakota Johnson. For all her luminous beauty Ms. Johnson does not deign to act in this film – which was quite a surprise; I’d really liked her in Persuasion. There she was warm, wry and witty, here she is a cold fish, all monotones and small hesitant gestures. Were she not this beautiful, she might have blended into the wallpaper.
Pascal is decent, but Evans carries the film. You watch him waving that shield around as Captain America and you forget he can act. But he can. And he proves it in this film.
I did like Lucy’s character – it’s a pity it wasn’t fleshed out very well. Lucy is so torn, but she is a practical girl. She can quite see the advantages of marrying into wealth – but then John is a true friend – one she can actually talk and call upon. Somewhere along the way, Lucy makes up her mind and chooses a guy. The unfortunate part is that we don’t get to see it. The moment comes and goes, with nary an emotion to show for it.
The film is a romcom waxing lyrical about finding the one to grow old with etc. etc. We have one female with two male suitors vying for her attention. She makes her choice, but the why and the how and the stuff that comes with it just isn’t there. Where is the drama, the emotion, the heartbreak, the joy? Why Lucy does what she does is a mystery.
This film is tepid and very low-key. Even the big moments are so muted down, they hardly register. I felt little for this modern romance.
