Love, Rosie (2014)

Sam Claflin and Lily Collins play Alex and Rosie, whom we watch grow from childhood friends to awkward adults, separated by sea but bound by heart. Bless. No contrivance is left uncontrived to keep them apart. Bad relationships. Babies. Even worse relationships. It's life, Jim, but not as we know it. Fans of the book may be dismayed to learn that the film deviates from the text in the final act – although by then they might actually be glad we're not going the whole hog.

Conspicuously boring, the film lifelessly portrays the lives of two remarkably cute yet determinedly unremarkable people who seem to be making a conscious effort to build a semi-tragic love story while leaving a trail of half-loved partners in their wake. It's all building to an inevitable kiss. Unfortunately, a combination of poor editing, and rapid-onset attention deficit syndrome on my part, meant I went through the movie under the misapprehension that Alex and Rosie had already got jiggy at the start, which may have undermined some of the climactic impact.

The supporting cast is comprised of pantomime villain boyfriends, poisonously bitchy girlfriends, and an infinitely accommodating pro-life Catholic family. Rosie's best friend is one of those handily not-quite-as-pretty mates (Jaime Winstone) who says things bluntly and whose impossibly simple personal philosophy acts solely to highlight the needless complications of Rosie's own life.

This is a ruthlessly formulaic movie in which I lost count of the occasions that Alex or Rosie would come to the conclusion that they love each other, only to discover in the same instant that the other was committed elsewhere. Each dull revelation is followed by empowering montage, propelled by a listless soft rock soundtrack. The early slapstick humour – all baby vomit and lost condoms – is Carry On funny (by which I mean not funny) and gives way to more "grown-up" jokes of the blandly observational variety. Nothing that hasn't been noticed by countless Saturday night stand-ups.

This is unreal life depicted as a series of poetic coincidences, giving the illusion of fate. It's utterly disingenuous. What, perhaps, wistful 14-year-olds might imagine adult relationships are like. The rest of us are thinking: Get over it. Man up or move on. Somewhere there may be an interesting film to made about the way in which bleeding heart romantics skilfully maintain unconsummated tension over time, but this isn't it.

Claflin and Collins are likable leads, and with a decent script and a plausible story they might have showed some chemistry. But it's hard to connect cinematically over text, Skype, and eye-rolling narrative contrivance. I fear that audiences may find it similarly hard to connect with this film.

Fmovies: I love a romantic comedy as much as the next girl. I go in fully expecting the cheesiness and I'm okay with that. But "Love, Rosie" was brilliant!

Not only was it heartwarming, romantic and funny, it was dramatic with great moral lessons about friendship, family, honor, trust and responsibility.

I came out of the cinema thinking "Wow, that was really worth my money."

Lily Collins and Sam Clafin were both brilliant leads and they had heaps of chemistry together.

I would recommend this film to anyone as they will love it. Girls, have no fear of your boyfriend complaining about being dragged to a romcom after this one. I think even HE will be rooting for Rosie and Alex to get together.

10/10 stars. Can't wait for the DVD!

"Love, Rosie" is a movie about two best friends, Alex and Rosie. They've know each other since they were kids, and Alex always liked Rosie in a different way, but she doesn't know that. they expect to spend all their lives together, but some things get in the way and everything changes, so throughout the movie the best friends keep coming and going, discovering by distance, the fact that they truly love each other. Rosie is played by Lily Colins and Alex by Sam Clafin. The movie was directed by Christian Ditter and produced by Simon Broots and Robert Kulzer. The movie was based on the book "Rosie Dunne" by Cecilia Ahern. "Lovie, Rosie" is a romantic comedy movie. It is a movie for all ages, but especially for the lovers of this gender.

Love, Rosie fmovies. I watch the whole movie without knowing that's from a really nice novel; therefore, it has a simple storyline but the power it made is really fantastic and in a few moment, I nearly can feel as precisely as the two main characters did, mostly the actress although I'm a guy, haha. After all, we should...ur...no, we must pursue our dreams especially our love with the best effort, the time, once it's gone, will never come back, that's how real life, as well as such film, taught me.

Romance novelist Cecilia Ahern made a bit of a splash in chick-lit circles when her second novel, Where Rainbows End, was published in 2004. It was a tale of two people who were clearly perfect for each other but could never seem to find their way towards being in love, told in the form of e-mails, text messages and letters. The story itself was predictable, but the format was reasonably hip and refreshing at the time. Ten years later, the book has been turned into a slight but amiable romantic comedy for the silver screen. The film isn't particularly hip or refreshing, but boasts just enough charm and emotion to entertain - even if it isn't a film that will stay with you for long afterwards.

Rosie Dunne (Lily Collins) has been best friends with Alex Stewart (Sam Claflin) since they were kids. They've always meant the world to each other, but have never become more than friends. At their high-school prom, they ask other people to the dance. Alex moves to Boston to begin his studies in medicine, and Rosie must stay behind due to an unexpected pregnancy. Over the next several years, she raises a child on her own, and he gets married. Through all of life's changes and upheavals, they still pop up on each other's radar, connected via e-mails, text messages and a bond that one suspects can never really be broken.

That's pretty much it, really - the outcome of the film is never in doubt, however long it might take to get there. Indeed, one problem with Love, Rosie is that it does take a relatively long time to get to the point, even though it's tried to simplify Ahern's novel by merging characters and removing subplots. The longer it goes on, the harder it becomes to buy into the various situations, events and misunderstandings that conspire to keep Alex and Rosie apart - whether it's his marriage or hers, the rekindling of old relationships, or plain ol' geography. Their relationship is so heavily peppered with coincidences and mishaps that it could have made a decent dark melodrama about the dangerous effects of co- dependency.

And yet, for all its plot problems, Love, Rosie is a mostly charming affair. There's some real depth to the relationship between Rosie and Alex, one which transcends both friendship and romance in unexpectedly touching ways - whether it's her decision not to ruin his future by telling him about her pregnancy, or the comfort he selflessly gives her when she's struggling to stay afloat in the wake of a family tragedy. Thrown into the mix is the sweet chemistry shared by Collins and Claflin, who are both very cute and very committed to making their roles work. (Collins never feels or looks old enough to play the mother of a teenage girl, even one who had her kid as a teenager, but that's a minor quibble.)

Considering how predictable the story is, it's something of a minor miracle that Love, Rosie works at all. But it does, for the most part, whenever it manages to find the heart and humour of its characters and their almost painfully intertwined lives amidst its many narrative contrivances. It's not great art, or even one of the great romantic comedies, but it's a surprisingly decent diversion - one that should please Ahern's fans and perhaps win her a few new ones.

This is my first review here so bear with me. As I'm sure most of you know, this movie is based on a novel Where rainbows end by Cecilia Ahern. It is just loosely based on it, because the story differs somewhat. I won't reveal anything else, to avoid spoilers. All I'll say is that it works because it captures the essence of the book. The chemistry between the two main actors is unbelievably good and the supporting cast is good as well. I warmly recommend this film to everybody. How probable the plot, that is up to a viewer to decide. It was for me. If you're a hopeless romantic, you're gonna enjoy this one. If you're a realist, you're probably gonna find certain situations a bit too much and out there. Nonetheless I left the theater with a smile on my face. The movie makes you believe that anything is possible and that one should never give up on hope.