From the director of This Year's Love comes another Brit rom com, combining the talents of many of our up and coming English film stars with familiar faces from the small screen.
The film follows a group of people, and how their lives are affected through chance meetings and overlappings of social circles as they come to dance in the same salsa club and go to the same taxi rank to get home. Fergus (David Morrissey) follows his former love (Horrocks) all the way to London to attempt a reconciliation after jilting her years ago, whereas Eddie (Mistry) stumbles into the salsa club one night, and into the life of introvert Jocelyn (McCormack), reluctant to have him intrude, with a similar scenario for Frankie and Eleanor (Ferguson and Williams).
With the disgusted reports of last years figures of box office takings from Brit flicks - among the many disgraced include Janice Beard 45 wpm (starring Rhys Ifans and Pasty Kensit) and House (starring Kelly MacDonald and This Life's Jason Hughes) - only Billy Elliot and Snatch actually made a profit. The British film industry was getting increasingly stronger with international success from hits like 4 Weddings and A Funeral and The Full Monty a few years ago, so why is it we only seem to produce the occasional gem?
Probably because in the case of Born Romantic, yes, you get the occasional laugh; yes, it isn't bad in itself; especially with the calibre of actors in it, but compared to other British films, it certainly isn't doing much special or, at the very least, original. Which is a shame, considering the potential the film shows, particularly within the characterisation. Still worth seeing, but bear in mind that the influence from This Year's Love clearly shines through.
