Love Is All You Need

If there was ever a film that looked as though it had been sponsored by Jif lemon juice, Love Is All You Need would be it. Not because it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth but because from the lemon groves of Italy where much of the film takes place, to the colour of our protagonist’s car and her rather garish choice of clothes, lemon yellow invades the screen and leaves the audience with no questions as to its significance. For a film so indebted to lemons (I never thought I'd write that!) Love Is All You Need is, paradoxically, very sweet indeed.

The last time we saw Pierce Brosnan cavorting around a Mediterranean shoreline dressed in smart-casual lounge suits, it was in the infectiously brilliant Mamma Mia!. Yes, you read that correctly: Mamma Mia! is a fantastic film and I'd be quite happy to fight its corner any day. Directed by the Oscar-winning Danish director Susanne Bier, Love Is All You Need follows the story of Ida (Trine Dyrholm), a hairdresser who wears a wig following her battle with cancer. Her daughter, played by Molly Blixt Egelind, is due to marry Pierce Brosnan's son in Italy and she flies out to the wedding having just discovered her husband has been having an affair. The film has an unusual mix of Danish and English dialogue which reflected the quirky narrative and on more than one occasion, Brosnan's pensive character looked as though he were about to burst into song at any moment as in Mamma Mia!. Fortunately, he didn't.

Marketed as a romantic comedy, Love Is All You Need is distinctly lacking in the humour department. Whilst some moments were quite funny, the whole script felt as though it needed an injection of comedic energy to really keep up the pace. This is not to say that it was unfunny, but merely that I could have done with a few more laughs. In contrast, the drama was handled rather well and the story, although ridiculously contrived, had a certain charm to it. If there's one thing to say about the film, it is that it is nicely underplayed, rather low-key and erogenous towards its subject material and its characters.

Brosnan puts in a convincing performance as a high-flier in the fruit and vegetable industry (the man's talents know no bounds) who is brought down-to-earth by his developing relationship with Ida. There's a touching realism to their relationship which develops throughout the film and I felt that their interactions were very believable. More broadly, the film's themes of parenthood, love and familial tensions were, again, approached in an low-key manner. Dyrholm's performance was very impressive and several scenes which could have easily been overplayed were sensitively approached by the director. The death of Brosnan's wife left much to the audience's interpretation; the denouement of the wedding steered clear of sensationalism (actually, I take that back – it was pretty ridiculous); and the film's final scenes dealt with Ida's cancer in a beautifully meaningful way.

So then, all looks pretty good. Why then, does the film only get three stars? For all the pleasantries in the dialogue, the assured performances and the scenery which seemed to promise a melodic Meryl Streep hiding behind every lemon tree, Love Is All You Need all feels rather superficial and uninspiring. It looks nice and plays nice but the lack of laughs was a real problem (and it wasn't just me – barely anyone in the screening was laughing). As a drama, it works. As a romantic comedy, it just doesn't stack up.

Love Is All You Need is a pleasant film with nice characters, a nice backdrop and a nice message. It is one of the most charming films that I've recently seen but this doesn't raise it to the level to which I would have liked to have seen it. Sweet it may be, but I would have loved a bit more sharpness in that lemon. 

Clapperboard Rating: * * *  

Love Is All You Need is released nationwide 19th April