Review: Love Is All You Need
Love Is All You Need - Credit: Archant
Having nabbed an Oscar for her previous effort (Best Foreign Language Film for her cross-continent bullying saga In A Better World), the expected route for a director would be to find something even weightier to film.
A rom-com in which ruthless, driven businessman Pierce Brosnan has his cold heart melted by a humble
Danish housewife during an Italian wedding was not on the cards.
Good luck to Susanne Bier. Having got lucky in the Oscar lucky dip, why wouldn't you go off on a nice sunny location shoot and get one of your nation's best acting talents fixed up with a former James Bond?
The movie opens with Dean Martin's That's Amore, surely the most over-used song in cinema.
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When used in one that centres on a wedding in old Napoli, it is making a clear statement that no envelopes were pushed in the making of this film.
But its lack of ambition might actually work for it. It's funny but in rather obvious ways and only the fact that the lead character is recovering from breast cancer and that a lot of it is subtitled give it any depth.
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It gets by on two thoroughly engaging lead performers.
Trine Dyrholm's character is something of a thankless one, a doormat who drifts through life being taken advantage of by others, but she makes it special. No doubt she is an immensely talented performer, did well in all her classes, but the key is surely that she has these extraordinarily communicative eyes, which she combines with a really electrifying smile.
Pierce never stood a chance.
Quite why Brosnan is appearing in what is virtually a non-musical remake of Mamma Mia! is a mystery. Mamma Mia! was a career nadir – everybody made fools of themselves but, while the rest of the cast came off as good sports, he just looked like a right plum. He is desperately awkward when asked to be a 'real' person but there's a dignity to the awkwardness here.
LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED (15)
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Kim bodnia, Paprika Steen, Sebastian Jessen and Molly Egelind
Length: 116 Mins
***
