I'm Not in Love

A refreshing look at the question of 'the one' - some really sweet performances and a relief to see some different faces on the screen as well as some old time faves!

This film offers something that I haven't seen in a long time - an honest invitation to journey with a character who, despite his flaws, is trying to make sense of what love is. It's funny that we really don't see many films like this - in attempts to generalize and gloss over it, or wishing for a sugar sweet finish, we can use romantic comedy as a way to escape our own questions, or fantasize our own better endings. This film invites us to look at ourselves, and uses humour and pathos to get there. At times uncomfortable, at times laughable, the characters bring us up close with difficult conversations about relationship, expectation and love. As a viewer, I found it an honest film - and that honesty, as well as the performances of the actors themselves, felt like an important gift that that brings the audience into maturity and honours a film tradition that demands engagement out of a friendship, or at least a kind of kinship, with its viewer.

Positive reviews are all single use accounts whose only activity in IMDB is to positively and gushingly rate/review this absolutely terrible, atrociously paced nonsense. And this is British? The Brits have the greatest actors in the world. Did they have to scour the gutter somewhere to find the only dozen brits who can't act at all?

Second, this is pitched as an anti-rom-com, and specifically as more realistic. Uhm, 40 year old never married women don't get married to men their age, they have to marry 60 year olds. Like it or not, that is the data. This guy, and any 40 year old employed guy, is going to be dating/marrying someone in their late 20's early 30s. He is going to have them chasing him in droves.

Movie: I'm Not In Love IN A NUTSHELL:

Ah, romantic love. It's so much fun falling in love...the butterflies in the stomach...the exciting thrill of holding hands or kissing for the first time. This movie shows what happens after the comfort level, and even boredom, set into a relationship. Can you love someone but not be in love? How do you know if it's true love? Some might call this comedy an anti-rom-com because it paints a pretty bleak, realistic, yet still hopeful picture of relationships.

The story is about Rob, who is in his late thirties. He needs to decide if he wants to have a baby with his girlfriend Marta, but he's worried that he's fallen out of love with her. He asks his unhappily married friends for advice. They all tell him that he won't be able to do better so he might as well marry her. Over the course of two weeks, his friend Chris tries to set him up on a date, he meets up with the woman he thought was the great love of his life, he tries to get to grips with the idea of "settling", and attempts to resolve his issues. But when Rob eventually does propose to Marta, things don't go exactly to plan.

THINGS I LIKED: The opening credits that showed pictures of cast members as kids were creative and fun.

While the film is British, the cast is quite international, starring Al Weaver and Cristina Catalina.

You can get a true glimpse of how a guy will treat you in the future by how he treats his mother. The main guy in the movie is super rude and disrespectful to his own mother, revealing what a real jerk he is. Pay attention, girls!

It's fun to see everyday locations and life in England.

The film asks several interesting questions but never answers them. For example, one of the questions is if it's okay to date your best friend's ex. What do YOU think? Comment down below!

Watching the proposal was painfully delicious and Marta's reaction was realistic and heartbreaking.

There are some golden nuggets of wisdom in the movie, particularly about happiness and service to others. The lessons taught are very subtle but powerful. The protagonist goes through a lot of experiences that slowly reveal his character and desires to himself. For most of us, it takes a lifetime to truly understand ourselves. While the story doesn't "end", there is some satisfying resolution of character growth in the story.

The ending leaves you wondering what will happen next, which I thought was a smart way to finish.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: Americans may find it difficult to understand everything that's said because of the thick British accents.

It makes me sad that all of the marriages that are represented in the movie are terrible. I'm so grateful my marriage isn't anything like the ones shown in the film. It would have been nice to balance the struggles of marriage with some of the joys. There are only a few split seconds in a montage that show anyone smiling with their partner. Life and marriage can be hard, so I wish the movie had illustrated some of the reasons why people stay together.

I didn't like the protagonist at all (Rob Lloyd) and wanted Marta to kick him out of her apartment during the majority of the movie. It was hard to see what she saw in him.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: This movie is inappropriate for kids, plus they'd be bored anyway.

Some profanity, crude language, and lots of F-bombs An unmarried couple lives together. Someone in the movie describes it like "Well, the shackles are on but you don't have the key." People try to hook up with a foursome in a hotel Lots of talk of sex

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Here's the thing about rom-coms. You really need to think out of the box, make something creative to stand out. "I'm not in Love" fails to do that. The one liners fell flat, the chemistry between Rob and his friends fell flat, some scenes felt like watching a theater play.

The love story looked forced. The stand out performer was Cristina Cataline. She did a fine job but that's about it. There's nothing new in the movie, you've seen everything before.