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.
