Where I Watched It: Netflix

English Audio Description By Media Solutions

Written By Andrea Breton

Were you a big fan of you’ve Got Mail, or perhaps even The Shop Around The Corner? Did you ever sit around and say to yourself “this is too happy, I wish it were depressing.” Congrats, cause you won. They figured it out. It’s You’ve Got Mail, but sad.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas plays a lovely children’s book illustrator who is enjoying lunch with her fiancé, when he walks outside and is Meet Joe Black’d in front of her. She takes some time for herself, while being harrassed by her roommate for not grieving faster, and eventually decides to turn her frown upside down. but, she still needs to process. So she starts texting her dead ex.

A cuter and different movie might have had him text back… from heaven. But, this is the real world, and in the real world, his phone number now belongs to a journalist played by Sam Heughan, who is reeling from being left by his fiancée a week before their wedding. We know this, because his boss brings it up in the most awkward data dump ever. No, you can’t have your podcast. I took a risk on you after your fiancee left you a week before your wedding. Go interview Celine Dion, because we are in a Celinessaince.(Not a real word, but the film makes it happen, because in this world Drake wants to tattoo Celine Dion’s face on his body)

Sam starts receiving these texts, and he thinks it’s just some confused rando, or an old cat lady. But these texts speak to him on a deeper level, so when Priyanka reveals her intent to blind date someone from Tinder at a bar, he decides to stalk her there. He wants to know if the woman writing these beautiful words is hot enough to get invested in, and oh boy… she is.

This film loses most of its credibility in the moment where Sam has to choose to not tell her. She’s still texting the phone, she’s met Sam, they are casually dating, and Sam has figured out all about her past and the dead fiancé. So, this is where the film veers from being the weirdest romcom to being kinda gross.

Still, Outlander fans will watch, because Sam has bared all on that show, and women are very much the target demo here. However, he doesn’t get any sexier in this than his pervasive nudity and sex scenes in Outlander. Yes, Celine Dion is in this, and she’s actually quite good. Given everything she’s currently going through, I’m glad she got to do a film role like this, and be the very odd center of attention. it reminds me a bit of what lebron James pulled off in Trainwreck.

The audio description is of course a must, considering how much time these people spend on their phones. Yes, Sam does read some of them out loud, but not all of them. And even though this is a modern film, it does make the effort to let us know some specific wardrobe choices. Neither of the lead characters are fans of fancy dress shoes, and like to wear sneakers to fancy occasions. Priyanka attends the Opera, and is styled in a gorgeous gown that the narrator takes full advantage of describing. not just that, but she is an illustrator, and while I feel like we could have done more here with describing her drawings, at least we get a cursory mention of this thing that’s such a huge part of her life. I would have appreciated a bit more description though in that respect.

At the end of the day, the question is should this be a romance at all? or certainly, should it be a romantic comedy? These are two charming leads, but with this plot, some people may be instantly turned off. It’s so hard to sell this to anyone, because I couldn’t root for Sam to get the girl since he makes terrible and creepy life choices.

The best part of this film is Celine Dion. Her music and her presence. I’m not sure if we will ever get that again, but at least we have this film to show off what potential she had on screen.

Final Grade: C