This Time Next Year

This-Time-Next-Year
This Time Next Year

Mixing traditional rom-com conventions with a trough of new ideas, This Time Next Year knows what it means to include all the essential elements of the genre but just doesn’t get it right. In this feature film actors Sophie Cookson and Lucien Laviscount star as birthday twins, with one being irritated by the other for ‘stealing’ her mother’s preferred name for her. This novel concept is the key ingredient this film required to not fall into the same cliche that their more recent rom-coms have become, but how is it possible that the flick doesn’t aim?

The novel is based on the novel by Sophie Cousens, and Cookson’s Minnie Cooper (like the automobile) who is endowed with a pie business is feeling as much pain in love as she does in her pie venture. Her ill fate that permeated her changing of a name given to her by her mother is always with her and it is especially great on her birthday which she shares with the first of January. This is because Angela was born the second baby on January 1st, 1990 after 1990’s first baby, Quinn Hamilton played by Laviscount who was born in the same hospital. It meant that Quinn’s family got to walk away with the £50,000 cash reward while Minnie’s family happened to fall short of the same prize money.

Now as strange as this idea sounds, it definitely plays well to the film’s advantage. It makes This Time Next Year more distinct from the other films with rom-coms within the congestively produced films and perhaps even higher a notch. Sadly, this is brought down by a barely heart-infused script. The actors do the best they understand the moments and do their part well enough, but the screenplay is beyond redemption. Most of the dialogue comes across as a bit cringe. This raises awkward interruptions such as in scenes that are too tense or too crazy for the logic of the story to be convincing.

When we picture Quinn and Minnie’s story in the end, time after time bringing them together, almost as if it were destiny, we watch their mothers’ relationship blossom too, with Tara (Golda Rosheuvel) and Connie (Monica Dolan) as the close friends on whom their daughters became a light. There’s a heap of resentment because Connie can’t move past the fact Tara took the name for the baby daughter she secretly had planned, and that she has money she never worked for. On occasions, the audience would be tempted to watch the story of Tara and Connie rather than the story of the main characters, which is a bit of a shock.

Tara’s character, as played by Rosheuvel, is contemplative but there is a continuous building tension that is likely to explode at any time. While all the other characters have several daunting tasks in the film, Tara stands out as she has personal demons that she needs to defeat in the film.

While set in London, one can easily view iconic sites which are common in the film. However, for the majority, the English capital might be too dreary especially since the film is sharp. All this picture finds Cookson and Laviscount in the park, swimming, sharing ice cream, and pie throwing. Their chemistry is so great and so crucial to the success of this film that they can elevate smaller moments to larger moments. Every shot stolen between them is worth a thousand words and the director Nick Moore understands that and uses it to his advantage.

Mandip Gill in the role of Leila (who is Minnie’s best friend and also her fiance manager), Will Hislop in the role of Greg (always broke and is the boyfriend of Minnie) and John Hannah in the part of Keith, a loving father of Minnie, support these two lovebirds ably. One can’t help but appreciate how Cookson and Laviscount bask in the glory while the others put up decent support.

When it comes to romantic comedies, one out of the two ingredients used is pure comedy; as much as the chemistry could be boiling in the rom-com, when the laughter is absent in the ever-necessary comedic breaks, the movie gets boring. In some places, This Time Next Year manages to get things right but such instances are very rare. More often than not during the film, lines of dialogue either preemptively kill the development of a joke or simply linger for too long. We must admit that some characters are funnier, or perhaps, are intended to be, such as Greg, who is meant to be a source of comic relief.

As for pies, This Time Next Year is not quite as satisfying as them yet does give some sort of satisfaction during its 116 minutes long animation. For those who would like to watch light entertainment with light jokes and simple storylines, this is a great option. It will depend on what one feels like because it could be just the ticket one needs for a quiet evening and nothing more.

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