7 in 10 people will like "Love at First Sight"
"The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love." Hillary Stanton Zunin, Grief Expert
Love at First Sight is streaming now on Netflix. It’s also rated #1 in Top 10 Movies in U.S. on Netflix.
Grade: B+ (Good chemistry between romantic leads - Richardson and Hardy, Fine acting, Intriguing enough plot, Writing was so-so, Bonus points for Jameela Jamil and Rob Delaney)
And oh, there are days in this life worth life and worth death.
- Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend
In the film adaptation of Jennifer E. Smith's romance-drama book Love At First Sight which released on Netflix last week, the author employs the language of 19th Century British novelist, Charles Dickens for an unconventional love story set in modern times between two cynical youths (one a Brit and one an American) who fall in love aboard a 6+ hour red-eye from JFK to London Heathrow in the days leading to Christmas.
The human unpleasantries of overnight flights like bad breath, drooling, snoring, dark under eye circles which might make romantic pairing a challenge, be damned. They are instead replaced here by clean, fresh breath, cute PJs, and the smoldering stares and horny glares of two very attractive young people.
In the course of the 1.5 hour film, we come to understand that the intense elation and excitement that go hand and hand with a first flush of love doesn’t necessarily negate other situational lived pain - the kind that cause the brain greater dissonance, namely loss, grieving, and reconciling with life’s uncertainty.
Part of the film’s quirkiness is the incessant, almost ChatGPT spewing out of statistics about love, life, and death aimed at getting your brain anchored in a question for the ages - whether love at first sight is in fact real, and if, yes, is it a phenomenon best explained away by the forces of fate or if we can somehow leverage data and numbers to quantify and contextualize it. The narration of these facts is primarily channeled via Oliver (Ben Hardy), the romantic lead and also through the presence of the lovely Jameela Jamil (I Weigh Podcast and Tahani from The Good Place). Jamil is cast as a narrator here a la “elf man” from The Princess Switch movies, a guardian angel-esque character who morphs into different roles (Flight Attendant, Customs Officer, Wedding attendee, etc.) depending on the scene and whose primary goal is to keep pushing Oliver and Hadley towards each other and have us believe that love at first sight truly exists, while also insisting this entire film isn’t just a story about love:
But just to be clear, this isn’t a story about love. This is a story about fate or statistics. - Jameela Jamil (Narrator)
The part of my brain that gravitates to certainty and risk avoidance understands where Ben Hardy’s Oliver who plays a Yales Statistics grad student and is literally a walking and talking probability and statistics textbook, is coming from, especially as we learn more about his own personal trauma.
Hadley (Haley Lu Richardson), whose avg. phone battery life is 21% (a fun fact shared in the film) and is perpetually late, carrying around emotional trauma in the form of abandonment of her father (Rob Delaney), easily opens up to Oliver. It takes longer for him to do so with her. He’s British, after all and he hides behind the comfort of his statistics like a security blanket (i.e.”You know the chances of this plane crashing are like 1 in 5.5 million.”) But they get there.
Note to reader: Throughout the film, I kept asking myself what business a Christmas romance has airing in September. Is this some cosmic prank aimed at tricking my brain into thinking prematurely about holiday shopping when I’m still in school transition mode? It’s akin to going to Walgreens and seeing wall-to-wall Halloween merch, but worse. If anyone has any good theories here, please share. I mean should I be booking a romantic dinner reservation for Valentines Day already? Pinning guac recipes for the Super Bowl party in Feb?
Is Love at First Sight Real?
Per the Cleveland Clinic, “About 60% of individuals experience love at first sight, and if you've experienced it once, you're more likely to experience it again.” The research also states that “People who have love at first sight sometimes have an anxious attachment style. They want an instant connection with someone to help reduce their anxiety.”
The film doesn’t explore in depth the psychological profile of our two leads, but we can make some safe assumptions that both Oliver and Hadley have some form of generalized anxiety disorder. Both have 3 chief fears and one of them even overlaps: mayonnaise. Cute, right? But also, really? Have you every tried Mayochup with french fries or salad with Thousand Island dressing? These are tasty condiments.
Anyways, Hadley’s fears include dentists and small spaces but of course divorce is up there too and being left behind in the U.S. by her Oxford professor father. We don’t find out all of Oliver’s baggage until some time goes by, but surprises are on his list and this is can be attributed to his grappling with the fate of his ailing mother. In fact, his whole existence centers around a need to define, statistically every action and reaction before it happens. In this way, he’s a bit predictable. But he’s also Ben Hardy, or Angel from X-Men, so we forgive him his trespasses.
Haley Lu Richardson is 🔥🌶️
Ever since Haley Lu Richardson graced the screen as Tanya’s (Jennifer Coolidge) reluctant assistant on The White Lotus S2, she’s been on my radar. Her attire alone in that series warranted Emmy wins, let alone her facial expressions and knack for getting herself involved with the wrong kinds of people (Jack). Her best scenes in The White Lotus have her often saying nothing but conveying so much of what we feel and how’d we react in her situations opposite Coolidge’s Tanya. She is all of us.
In the role of Hadley, Richardson gives it her all. She carries the film as the co-lead with her signature vulnerability, wearing her self-deprecating armor and honest candor in a way that’s charming and disarming. Hardy, here, earns big points with his ability to dive into Oliver’s pain and avoidance while slipping in and out of a facade of facts and charming jokes, all the while displaying warmth and earnestness.
The Award for Pulling Off an Honest Portrayal of “Life Sucks, Kid, but love is real and it’s ugly and beautiful. And I should know.”: Rob Delaney
For a guy you’re not supposed to really like all that much in the film, Hadley’s sorta absentee dad, comedian Rob Delaney sure has a knack for surprising his viewers. His puppy dog demeanor is definitely an asset but as we saw in the brilliant comedy Catastrophe, where he played opposite Sharon Horgan, as 1/2 of a newish couple living in London with a baby, he’s an affable bloke who isn’t afraid to reveal ugly truths and sometimes play the part of a jerk. To be clear, in this role, he’s not really a jerk, but from Hadley’s perspective I can certainly understand why she would view him as such initially, especially as he left her in the U.S. The more screen time Delaney gets here, the more you want to see more of him.
What shows and films are you enjoying during this creative gap/deficit in programming? Is it OK for me to see the silver lining in the SAG-AFTRA strike and try and embrace some older programs? I sure hope so. I don’t feel as good a global citizen as I do when I recycle or compost, but supporting content that pre-dates the strike doesn’t feel like too bad of a thing either.
Are there any shows you are excited to revisit or try out for the first time? I mentioned to
that I’m considering The Wire via comment here and we had a good chat regarding an upcoming Netflix Wes Anderson production he is looking forward to. This trailer looks outstanding. Thanks for the tip, Steve.I was recently listening to an interview from 2021 with Michael Schur, co-creator of Parks & Recs, writer and producer on The Office, and creator of The Good Place where he calls out The Wire’s form of storytelling as being an influence on him. In a 2012 interview with HuffPo, Schur went as far as to say that Parks & Recs is like a comedy version The Wire. It’s possible this quote has suffered from the effects of a critics’ “whisper down the lane” game but that’s something I’ll have to investigate further. That can’t be right. Can it?
How is this not called "Love at First FLIGHT"?!??? Opportunity = missed.
I am a huge Haley Lu Richardson fan. She stars in one of my all-time favorite films, Columbus, which hopefully is streamable. John Cho co-stars and it’s a slow character study film but one like I’ve never seen. Directed by Kogonada, who directed Pachinko. She is also excellent in the film, Support the Girls. And of course she is great in Edge of Seventeen.