| Let’s Love has a great premise: the cast and filmmakers of a once popular romantic comedy have reunited in Wales for a 10-year anniversary fan convention. But when they arrive they discover there was a scheduling problem and a lack of interest problem, no tickets were sold and the event no longer exists. They want to talk to the man in charge, Jerry, the producer who works for the studio, but Jerry won’t be there for a few more days. | | 2026
Directed by: Jamie Adams
Screenplay by: Jamie Adams
Starring: Malin Akerman, Josh Hutcherson, Jess Weixler, and Martin Freeman
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Audiences will have to ignore the obvious solution, just call Jerry, phones do exist. But the bigger problem is the film doesn’t really have a plot and it doesn’t know what type of movie it is. Is it a comedy? Not really. It’s not a romantic comedy. At best it’s a relationship dramedy, but ideally stuff should happen rather than just sitting around talking and making fun of actors.
The first relationship is Andrea (Malin Akerman), the film’s director, and Jackson (Josh Hutcherson), the film’s lead actor. They’re now married. The power imbalance is obvious; so obvious that it’s not funny. This isn’t a broad comedy and subtlety would work much better. Meanwhile Jackson wants to play up the romance with his co-star Jess (Jess Weixler), which of course Andrea doesn’t want to allow, but also there are no fans, so play it up for whom? But Jess is primarily in a different movie; she’s supposed to be going through a sort of mid-life crisis where she questions her past roles and is seeking validation, but it is always in the background like the film doesn’t know what to do with her character. Nigel (Martin Freeman) the out-of-work screenwriter is very negative about everything, until he suddenly decides he’s in love with Andrea. The film obviously wants a plot but threw darts at a dartboard.
The film is primarily just those four characters, plus two super fans who give them a place to stay as the four independently work on an idea for the sequel to pitch to Jerry, since, if you remember, they have to wait for his arrival to yell at him for screwing up the fan convention (rather than just calling him). There are a handful of funny scenes as the four get to work, most of which revolve around Josh Hutcherson’s Jackson. An egotistical actor who decided he was going to be a screenwriter but then gave up after he got to “It’s 10 years later, and they meet again.” And when Andrea asks, “then what?” he was taken aback “that’s the meat of the idea!”. Sitting around and making fun of actors is all the movie does.
If it seems like the movie is underwritten, that’s because it is. The credits include one screenwriter and “additional material provided by the cast”. It's common to hear of ad-libbed or improvised scenes in movies, but it is never to the point that the cast has to be credited. If the cast has to be credited, then you can assume very little was on paper and the cast just came up with random things to say or do. That’s exactly what Let’s Love is: a good premise with a good cast and they just said let’s wing it. Unsurprisingly it takes more than that to make a good movie.
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