Toomanymovies2

It's a story we've seen before - can you say 'Five Blind Dates'? - but it's a tried and tested one. I wanted to love this movie, but honestly it felt cut short.

Simone just didn't scream leading lady to me (sorry Bridgerton fans!) - I wanted Geraldine Viswanathan quirkiness, a la The Broken Hearts Gallery, but got Made in Chelsea vibes instead.

There just simply wasn't enough chemistry between Charlie and Pia to bring this story to life - or enough scenes with them together for that matter. It was as if they wanted as little of Charlie in the Final Cut as possible. There's a moment where he leaves the studio and the scene is literally cut short, making its feature absolutely pointless! So strange.

I also had real high hopes for the friendship dynamic between Pia and Jay. It had the potential to reach Rupert Everett and Julia Roberts heights, but just wasn't fully realised.

Within the script, there's a real overuse of the word "Welwyn", which started to irritate me by the halfway mark. We get it, you moved to London to realise your dreams, snore, stop referencing an affluent Hertfordshire town like it's a dirty word.

Ultimately, loved the idea, hated the execution.

The first thing to remember is that Hollywood will change stories. It's an inevitable part of the process and is always a divisive move for fans of the original work. If you've read the stories, you may feel cheated - Tessa features so little in the story of what was her life. It's so unlike the works that came before it, as though the producers knew that Hero was the star to rely on for one more round. Their golden ticket. But, it's important to remember that it's deviated from the original plot since it's inception. It's all part of the transition from novel to screen and until this point, it's still managed to pull in our heart strings and give us enough of the characters to keep us on the edge of our seats.

I loved that 'After Everything' felt like an homage to 'Before', giving an insight into who Hardin was and how he became the villain we grew to love. It's his redemption story and Hero played the character he's worked hard to build, fantastically. But ultimately, the final part of the story was too rushed and I couldn't help but feel like the soundtrack overplayed it's hand throughout. It took away from what could have been an important and fitting ending to the story.

Whether you're a fan of the books or not, as a romantic movie, it failed to deliver that satisfying closer that we all hope for. It forgot what it was trying to achieve in the previous films, which is what took away from what could have been a real happy ever after.