The Love Punch

Dir: Joel Hopkins

2013

*

Enjoyed is a strong word but I thought there was a lot to admire about Joel Hopkins's 2008 film Last Chance Harvey. It may not have been amazing in the scheme of things but the script was pretty good and the story sweet and simple. The Love Punch on the other hand is a muddled mess and one of the most awful films I've seen in the last decade. It's so frustrating because I love Pierce Brosnan, Emma Thompson, Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie, they're all amazing performers but all four took part in something I'm sure they'd all like to forget, I only hope they made stacks of money. The premise goes as follows: Brosnan plays a business partner and Thompson an author. Both are divorced and when their youngest child leaves for University they both find life to be a bit dull. Things take a turn for the worse when Brosnan's company and all its assets are bought and sold off for profit, meaning that the couples houses, pensions and savings are all gone. The pair decide to go to Paris to challenge the Frenchman responsible for the takeover and discover along the way that his wife to be is the owner of the most expensive diamond in the world. So, they decide to steal it, because I'm sure it would be easy enough to sell on. I like silly comedies, they don't always have to make sense, just as long as they are original and funny. The Love Punch is neither. It is painful viewing. Somehow, without any money at all, the pair travel expensively, stay in beautiful hotels, and buy scuba diving equipment and various disguises. Fantasy is okay with me and I like a bit of escapism as much as the next man but this isn't any of those things, this is a lack of idea, structure, creativity or focus. It doesn't make any sense because it has been poorly written. I'd probably be inclined to take it far less seriously if it were funny, original, exciting or featured half-decent performances but it isn't and it does not. It is almost as if Hopkins came up with a series of unconnected scenes that would look great edited together in a three minute trailer but not as a proper film. It doesn't once adhere to how anything in life actually works in any kind of way. I don't mind the elaborate bits either, it's just incredibly annoying when the simple everyday things like reading emails and entering buildings are shown so incorrectly that you wonder whether it was written by an actual adult human being. I'm sure some people will have liked it but then some people also like watching golf.