ONE TRUE LOVES 

(director: Andy Fickman; screenwriters: Alex J. Reid/Taylor Jenkins Reid/based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid; cinematographer: Greg Gardiner; editor: based on the novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid; music: Nathan Wang; cast:  Phillipa Soo (Emma Blair), Simu Liu (Sam), Luke Bracey (Jesse), Michaela Conlin (Marie), Lauren Tom (Ann), Michael O’Keefe (Colin), Tom Everett Scott (Michael), Oona Yaffe (Young Emma), Cooper van Grootel (Young Jesse), Phinehas Yoon (Young Sam), Oceana Matsumoto (Sophie); Runtime: 100; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Michael Jefferson/Adam Beasly/Sarah Finn/Andy Fickman/Ariane Fraser/Ryan Donnell Smith/Betsy Sullenger/Petr Jakl; The Avenue; 2023)

“The screenplay is not sensitive enough to flesh out answers to the question asked.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The Andy Fickman (“Race to Witch Mountain”/”Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2”) rom/com drama asks the question if one can love another as much as the one they truly love. It’s based on the 2016 Taylor Jenkins Reid novel, with the screenplay written by Reid and Alex J. Reid.

The screenplay is not sensitive enough to flesh out answers to the question asked, the stilted dialogue is a turn off in a film that is at times cringe-worthy and clumsily executed.

When the photographer husband Jesse (Luke Bracey) is missing after a helicopter crash in the waters of Alaska and declared dead, his wife Emma (Phillipa Soo) moves back to her Massachusetts hometown and falls for her best friend, Sam (Simu Liu).

The film veers between flashbacks from the past and the present.

Though the acting might be decent, One True Loves is a contrived and shallow soap opera- a bland melodrama that never caught my interest.



 
 
REVIEWED ON 4/23/2023  GRADE: C