Lily Collins  

(On Cable TV, November 2016) Anyone expecting Love, Rosie to remain a cute teen romantic comedy is in for a rough first few minutes, as the film boldly tackles missed opportunities, impulsive sex and an unwanted pregnancy that completely changes the protagonist’s life. Much of the rest follows according to the predictable frustration of seeing the film’s two romantic heroes comes close to consummating their love, but never quite managing to do so. Lily Collins stars, convincingly portraying a woman over eighteen years and numerous life changes. The highlight of the film may be the heartwarming relationship that the heroine has with her daughter. Otherwise, much of the story is a predictable cavalcade of near-romantic misses, intentionally frustrating until the big happy ending. Some of the humour goes a bit heavy on the humiliation of the heroine. The same characters pop up too often over the eighteen years of the story but really—who cares, it’s a romance film. Designed to be sappy and relatively successful in achieving its objectives, Love, Rosie doesn’t reach for the top of its category, but should manage to make its audience happy.

(On Cable TV, October 2015)  Young Adult contemporary fantasy has now entered its degenerate phase.  I’m not talking about the now-uncountable examples of “first film in the franchise” that will never lead to a second installment.  But I am talking about the way they grind up the same material, recycling plot lines, structure, character archetypes and story beats until they all blur into an undistinguishable mush of sameness.  Furthermore, what I’m definitely trying to avoid is discussing how I’m trying to write this review a few weeks after seeing The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones without remembering much about it.  The Wikipedia synopsis of the plot vaguely brings up a few images but I’m not sure if they’re from this film or any of the other similar films in that subgenre.  Lily Collins is fine as the protagonist, but the role is so generic that any other thin brunette under the age of 35 should have been able to do just as well.  What I definitely remember is that The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is too long in the way that dull movies simply last forever without a point.  Cynically assembled and executed without particular flair, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is headed straight for memory oblivion.  The process is already well underway in my own mind.