The fonz plays a middle-aged father who wants to do a reality cooking show where he breaks down peoples' doors and forces them to eat his food. It's a pretty technically terrible performance but it's so bad it's funny. During the dramatic scenes he looks like someone just smacked him across the face. At one point he flings a piece of fish across the room for no reason. He was never known for doing much more than shouting catch phrases and drawing attention to his groin area, though, so I can't say I'm surprised.
So... aside from the Fonz there's also a movie here. It's quite, quite bland, dilatory, and subdued. Case in point: If I understand correctly, the leads didn't have sex until months after they started dating.
But it's not bad. There's something calming bout this movie as it weaves in and out of the relationship. You don't really know where it's going to go, but the detached manner of the leads, playing two characters lightly tinged with the hue of love, rather than two highly passionate or highly sexual people, makes you feel like everything's going to turn out well even if the two end up apart.
Not that they don't love each other. The romance is well-developed at least in the script.
But the movie is about questioning the value of passionate love after the end of the age of the nuclear family. It's not a romance novel meant to show a gripping romantic adventure with a happy ending. (By the way, it's not a romantic comedy either. I don't know why it's classified into that genre - because some characters are kind of funny? It's like calling Die Hard (1988) an action-comedy because he says "Yipee Kay yay MF!" No, this is just a drama. The only thing funny about it is the Fonz' funky acting.).
Imogen fall in love with this very "appropriate" choice - similar in age, nice, similar to her. But she's not in love with the idea of a nuclear family or a traditional relationship. She has the so-called FOMO and doesn't want to put her young life at risk for a relationship. She wants the traveling, the career, the adventure of single women in their 20s.
At one point she calls her boyfriend an old man and has a violent adverse reaction to the possibility of letting her emotions lock her into an early serious relationship she might later regret.
The film's characters seem to subtly suggest that love is more important than all the other fluff in life, but there's no definitive answer. Kind of like the rest of the movie, it's just something that happened to some people - they'll get along fine either way.
Honourable Mentions: There's a dancing scene that would be extremely awkward in real life but most of the characters are kind of into it and seem to think it's normal. It's like the banana scene from When Harry Met Sally (1989). Get some perspective, people.
So... aside from the Fonz there's also a movie here. It's quite, quite bland, dilatory, and subdued. Case in point: If I understand correctly, the leads didn't have sex until months after they started dating.
But it's not bad. There's something calming bout this movie as it weaves in and out of the relationship. You don't really know where it's going to go, but the detached manner of the leads, playing two characters lightly tinged with the hue of love, rather than two highly passionate or highly sexual people, makes you feel like everything's going to turn out well even if the two end up apart.
Not that they don't love each other. The romance is well-developed at least in the script.
But the movie is about questioning the value of passionate love after the end of the age of the nuclear family. It's not a romance novel meant to show a gripping romantic adventure with a happy ending. (By the way, it's not a romantic comedy either. I don't know why it's classified into that genre - because some characters are kind of funny? It's like calling Die Hard (1988) an action-comedy because he says "Yipee Kay yay MF!" No, this is just a drama. The only thing funny about it is the Fonz' funky acting.).
Imogen fall in love with this very "appropriate" choice - similar in age, nice, similar to her. But she's not in love with the idea of a nuclear family or a traditional relationship. She has the so-called FOMO and doesn't want to put her young life at risk for a relationship. She wants the traveling, the career, the adventure of single women in their 20s.
At one point she calls her boyfriend an old man and has a violent adverse reaction to the possibility of letting her emotions lock her into an early serious relationship she might later regret.
The film's characters seem to subtly suggest that love is more important than all the other fluff in life, but there's no definitive answer. Kind of like the rest of the movie, it's just something that happened to some people - they'll get along fine either way.
Honourable Mentions: There's a dancing scene that would be extremely awkward in real life but most of the characters are kind of into it and seem to think it's normal. It's like the banana scene from When Harry Met Sally (1989). Get some perspective, people.