Priyanka Chopra may be most known to most American movie watchers as the famous- and famously beautiful- wife to Nick Jonas, arguably the most talented of the musical Jonas trio. This, however, doesn’t even come close to acknowledging her talents on the screen. As a wildly famous and equally as talented Bollywood actress, Chopra has more than proved her ability to act with the best of them. That’s why it’s so puzzling why her efforts to break into the American market haven’t been as successful. 2023’s Love Again unfortunately continues that trend for the actress in her latest leading role.
Love Again follows Chopra as Mira, a grieving woman who lost her boyfriend two years earlier to a drunk driver in broad daylight. When she begins texting her deceased ex-boyfriend’s old phone number, the messages accidentally get sent to Rob. Rob, played by Sam Heughan, is a music critic for The Chronicle who’s been assigned to do a profile on Celine Dion. When Rob finds himself falling for Mira through the phone, he sets out to find her and begin a new romance with the girl he loves but has never met.
Where Love Again begins to fall apart is just how predictable it is. While watching it, I was able to, almost beat for beat, identify what plot points were going to happen as they played out on screen. Imagine for a moment every stereotype you’ve ever seen in a Rom-Com and put them in this film. What you get is exactly what Love Again is. It’s unfortunate because the premise, which is apparently a remake of the German film SMS für Dich, is actually interesting.
The film also falters in how cliche and cringy some story elements are. From the two year time gap from the accident to when the film takes place, to awkward, tropey dialogue, it seemed pretty clear that the script for the film needed much more polish than it got. The addition of Celine Dion into the cast is also a bit weird. Although she does do a solid job, it just feels a bit out of place and distracts from the main story a bit too much. Even the meet-cute between the two main characters, which doesn’t happen until almost an hour into the film, feels almost soap opera levels of overdone.
With all the bad, however, there is some good that comes out of Love Again. I thought having Nick Jonas make a cameo in the film actually worked really well. He was funny and having him go on a date with Chopra’s Mira was a well-executed bit. I also felt that Heughan and Chopra had good chemistry as they were building their relationship through the movie. Their relationship was paced well and felt well done. At the least, these elements help lift the movie slightly, yet not really enough to save it.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, Love Again suffers too often from sheer predictability and wildly cliche moments to be worth sitting down to watch. While the film doesn’t reach Hallmark levels of cheesiness, it certainly has just enough to be off-putting. There are obviously much better Rom-Com’s out there. However, I really don’t think this movie is bad if you just want to put something on in the background while you do chores or work on a hobby. Just don’t get your hopes up for anything more.
