Love Again | Celine deserved better

After tragically losing her lover, a grieving illustrator tries to ease her pain by sending text messages to the deceased’s old number, unaware that a reporter assigned to write an article about Celine Dion is receiving them.

Two movies. Two completely different attempts at homage. Same lukewarm result. Two years later Aline, this dreamlike and unsettling biographical film by Valérie Lemercier, Céline Dion is at the heart of an unconvincing new feature film. But this time, good news, her accent is not massacred by any other actress since she plays her own role.

Before explaining why love again will pass incognito at the box office, let’s make one thing clear: Céline has nothing to do with it. Although due to Jim Strouse’s script (who is also directing), the Quebec artist plays a watered-down version of herself, in terms of energy saving, she does well. His tone is right. And each time she mentions René Angélil (because indeed, her lines were written to measure for her), the queen of Las Vegas exudes a lot of sincerity. When she recounts with nostalgia her first kiss with the impresario, backstage at Eurovision in 1988, we believe it.

Unfortunately, this is where we stop extolling the merits of love againwhich could be described as a pale copy of You’ve Got Mail, that 1990s Hollywood classic in which Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks corresponded anonymously by email. This time, the messages circulate by text messages, similisensitive texts, generically esoteric and heavily depressive, like: “I am heartbroken. I carry within me an immense pain, blablabla…” Faced with such a dragging of clichéd sentences, seeming to come out of a second-rate power ballad, a normally constituted person would have immediately blocked the telephone number in question, but for some obscure reason. , our accidental recipient (played by Sam Heughan) succumbs. A boy like no other, apparently.

gender codes

love again respects most of the codes specific to romantic comedies: an impromptu dance sequence in public, colorful secondary characters, an unfortunate misunderstanding, a soundtrack rich in violins, etc. The offering from Sony Pictures studios, however, has a significant lack of jokes, an ingredient that is essential to the genre: laughter. The producers may well use the services of the spouse of Priyanka Chopra Jonas, the singer Nick Jonas, to play a blind date ultra-showerbag, nothing works. Like Zora, at most, we smile. The rest of the time, we fight boredom.

And above all, let’s avoid addressing the implausibilities of the story (adapted from a novel by the German writer Sofie Cramer), such as when Celine Dion religiously listens to a reporter unpacking her love troubles during her interview time. All this while sitting on the ground and barefoot. The real Celine (or any other celebrity) would never have endured such logorrhea…unless she had been dancing in her head the entire time.

For her film debut, the singer deserved better than a sentimental bluette in 50 shades of beige.

Indoors

Romantic comedy

love again (VF: love again)

Jim Strouse

With Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Sam Heughan and Celine Dion

1:44

5/10