This review was posted on October 19th 2022 for JumpCut Online as part of London Film Festival
During Jamie Adams’ whimsical, flimsy romance, She is Love, a character is told while reading a script that “the less you rehearse it, the better it will be”. This proves to be Adams’ motif, as with his previous films Alright Now and Love Spreads, both of which were shot with no corporeal script in place. This improvisational style, as per the film’s press release, is an attempt at garnering a “performance-centred process”, as the story for Adams’ film is shaped through the performances after the cast and himself propose a central idea and form a ‘scriptment’.
It’s a concept that one might read about a critically acclaimed movie and fawn over, such as Derek Cianfrance’s soul shaking Blue Valentine. The script for which was scrapped before shooting, forcing Cianfrance’s central duo to improvise their scenes. However this was after actors Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams had spent months living together in order to acquire a blisteringly emotional tête-à-tête. Whereas, She is Love brings together American actress Haley Bennett and British actor Sam Riley for an only six-day long shoot, as divorced couple Patricia and Idris, respectively.
After a decade apart the two coincidentally reunite when Patricia miraculously checks in at the Cornwall hotel Idris runs, and over the course of a weekend their history bubbles up over their rekindling relationship. Unfortunately, and unlike the similarly executed Blue Valentine, there are only brief moments of chemistry between Bennett and Riley that attempt to indicate the closing distance that has existed between them. Good chemistry can shroud a film’s lacklustre script, direction or narrative choices, like a good magician misdirecting the audience with charm. Alas, here this is not the case, as there’s not enough chemistry between them to fill the vacuum that is left by the improvised script.
Not to imply there is no charm at all within the relationship. Riley and Bennett are established actors and they have naturally attractive movie star charisma which creates some, albeit sparse, pleasing moments that solidify their character traits. When Riley’s Idris first encounters Patricia, one of the next scenes sees him shaving, in an attempt at reinvigorating himself. He says to girlfriend Louise (Marisa Arbela) it’s because he is turning 40 and wants to look good. Audiences, though, are acutely aware of this change occurring after his encounter with Patricia.
It’s a shame that some of these slightly more subtle moments get overshadowed by clunky exposition, stilted dialogue and strange character decisions. It makes the film feel unnatural in how much time Patricia and Idris spend together “catching up.” Especially in spite of Louise’s presence, which only leads to a single moment of conflict which exists, not because of the obviously blossoming relationship between estranged lovers, but simply because Idris is drunk. The way the plot progresses makes everything within the film feel false, as ideas – let’s have them drunk in the bath! – become instantly realised on screen without rhyme or reason.
Nonetheless, it’s admirable that a film like this, which was shot with minimal budget over six days, still has a mostly coherent narrative, even if it is quite slapdash and shallow. However, this brief shooting window and chaotic directing style doesn’t allow for any of the writing to be adjusted retrospectively, in light of any new improvised material that the actors have come up with after the fact. None so much as a reveal in the final scenes for why the couple originally separated which re-contextualises the prior two acts, leading to further exasperation at the script as it drops this inauthentic bombshell.
At only 82 minutes long this British indie is unassuming and harmless, but there’s only a vague sense to the characters, who seem defined by the broad charactersistics listed on their character sheet rather than the lead actors finding their rhythm within the roles prior to shooting. It’s a nice idea, this ‘scriptment’ malarky, but it doesn’t pay dividends. Adams wants authenticity but he is trying to manufacture lightning in a bottle, which by its own definition, can’t be synthetically produced.
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