So I was looking for a cheesy movie last night. And I came across this and thought it could fit the bill (and hey I like Sam Claflin so bonus). Well, its cheesy all right...but also so much worse than I was expecting. Not only is it cliched (which I was expecting) but the plot is absolutely ridiculous from the start. We find out that Henry (Sam Claflin) has only sold 3 copies of his book, 1 being himself. His publisher also absolutely hates the book, all because its so boring. Then why the F was it published to begin with? And its his first novel too, so its not like a case where hes an established writer and he was contracted by the publishers to write a book by X date. It was his first novel. Publishing companies don't just publish anything that comes across their desks. I know we need to have this conflict to establish his book needing a re-write later on - but I feel like this could have been changed to either a self-publish thing or like, he wrote a great novel once and hes lost his spark or something. Or that maybe this book isnt a total failure but super divisive.
But anyway, moving on. Henry discovers his book is extremely big in Mexico and his publisher wants him to do a book tour in Mexico. And needs to have a conversation about social media for promotion sake. Again, not sure why a discussion about having an online presence is coming now, and not before his book was released...but whatever. It isnt soon before long that he discovers that his translator completely re-wrote the book into a straight on Harelquin romance type of novel. And hes understanbly upset. I get his book was boring and not doing well, but the movie makes it out like he's crazy for not being thrilled about this. Like, you changed his words and story. It doesnt matter if its making money now - its not his anymore. And the movie feels the need to throw in the feminist "Woe is me, my words have a man's name on the cover - I will never have that success because Im a woman" angle and its like Maam, nobody asked you to re-write the book. You could have just done an actual translation of the book, got your coin and not given a crap if it flopped. And they spend practically the whole movie at each other's throats not seeing eye to eye on ANYTHING up until they decide to do the nasty. And for a movie that goes into length about how smutty and passionate this book is....its the most vanilla love scene ever. And of course, this one act and suddenly theyre in love. But again, I was expecting that cliche to a point. But unfortunately the two leads have zero chemistry.
You can also tell the movie had an incredibly small budget because they decide to re-use the same fans for each book stop he makes. Maybe the director thought it was a funny gag, its not.
The movie was so bad, that I honestly scrubbed through the film minutes at a time trying to make the movie go faster.
But anyway, moving on. Henry discovers his book is extremely big in Mexico and his publisher wants him to do a book tour in Mexico. And needs to have a conversation about social media for promotion sake. Again, not sure why a discussion about having an online presence is coming now, and not before his book was released...but whatever. It isnt soon before long that he discovers that his translator completely re-wrote the book into a straight on Harelquin romance type of novel. And hes understanbly upset. I get his book was boring and not doing well, but the movie makes it out like he's crazy for not being thrilled about this. Like, you changed his words and story. It doesnt matter if its making money now - its not his anymore. And the movie feels the need to throw in the feminist "Woe is me, my words have a man's name on the cover - I will never have that success because Im a woman" angle and its like Maam, nobody asked you to re-write the book. You could have just done an actual translation of the book, got your coin and not given a crap if it flopped. And they spend practically the whole movie at each other's throats not seeing eye to eye on ANYTHING up until they decide to do the nasty. And for a movie that goes into length about how smutty and passionate this book is....its the most vanilla love scene ever. And of course, this one act and suddenly theyre in love. But again, I was expecting that cliche to a point. But unfortunately the two leads have zero chemistry.
You can also tell the movie had an incredibly small budget because they decide to re-use the same fans for each book stop he makes. Maybe the director thought it was a funny gag, its not.
The movie was so bad, that I honestly scrubbed through the film minutes at a time trying to make the movie go faster.