Film Journal 2023: Love Again
Directed by Jim Strouse
Where to watch: now playing at Polo Park Theater
Took a chance on this romantic comedy by the Director of the powerful and engrossing Grace is Gone while everyone else was at the new Guardians. It turns out its pretty charming. It takes a casual approach to the story, which actually aids a no frills and down to earth cast. The way it incorporates superstar Celine Dion works quite well too in contrast, using her songs and her persona as a story device and to fill out the subtext of our main characters. She’s more than up for the game of having a bit of fun with her stardom too. The soundtrack is worth a mention here as well, featuring Celine fairly prominently.
As circumstances thrust two reluctant strangers into each others paths, Strouse uses the lyrical emphasis of Dion’s soundtrack on complicated love to flesh out their journey towards one another in both comical and meaningful fashion. It is definitely cheesy, which actually plays in its favor, and there is more than enough here to cater a decent cross section of viewers, young and old. If it stays a bit muted and subdued in terms of its arc, it plays decently enough to an audience to reward a night out without demanding too much. Which is to say, it manages to do and be exactly what it needed to in order to tell this story, a remake of a German film, successfully
The Stories of my Life 