Review: Rather in Love (2003)

Director: Pim van Hoeve | 87 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Miryanna van Reeden, Chris Zegers, Romijn Conen, Elle van Rijn, Michael Pas, Wendy van Dijk, Sjoukje Hooymaayer, Ina van Faassen, Cyrille Carreon, Ruben Lürsen, Martijn Fischer, Lisa Portengen, Ids van der Krieken, Tobias Lasschuit, Anne Evers, Rob Malash

The well-known story of a romantic comedy. A young, beautiful woman has little luck in love. She doesn’t like it anymore and decides to stop dating. But what does she do when she eventually bumps into the right one? Or in this case; meet two true loves? Then she puts her intentions overboard and falls hopelessly in love, but does it end up the same as her previous failed relationships or does it become a happy ending?

Anna (Miryanna van Reeden) works for a women’s magazine where she conducts interviews with people who appear naked in the magazine. On her way to work, she comes into contact with construction worker Rob, aka Chris Zegers. Of course she falls in love with his good looks and immediately breaks her intention to stop dating men by making an appointment with him. But what happens next? One night Anna meets another nice man, Sander (Romijn Conen). This man may be less attractive than Rob, but he also melts Anna’s heart. Anna is determined not to fall in love with one of these men, let alone both. She seems to maintain her resolve to just have fun without getting any feelings. She makes secret appointments with both men, who are also each other’s best friend and roommate. But in the end it all goes wrong, of course, she gets feelings for both men and she is forced to make a choice. Or is this choice perhaps already being made for her?

Of course, as is customary with Dutch films, there is a lot of nudity in this film. In this case, this is well incorporated into the story because it is Anna’s job to interview people posing naked.

Director Pim van Hoeve has portrayed the first and large part of the film with a story that every woman might dream of; the choice of two nice men who are both madly in love with you. The subtle humor that has been brought into it is also well dosed. More romance, less humor. Especially the scene in which Anna pulls up the shirt like a real football player and runs across the square in her bra and eventually falls of course is very nice. Fortunately, such clumsy moments of Anna that serve as the basis for the comic effect in this film hardly ever faint. After such a moment, the director immediately switches to the romantic side. Except for one of the last scenes of the movie. This is where the story turns and the film goes downhill. Anna is in the same restaurant with both men and tries to divide her time between the two. When she also receives two marriage proposals, changing the rings becomes very difficult and everything goes wrong. This scene is already a bit towards the end, which we will leave in the middle here. It seems like the end of the movie has been a bit rushed. After seeing the final scene, you get the unpleasant feeling that the director has fooled you for an hour and a half by letting you watch a romantic comedy that ultimately doesn’t end as you expect and hope it will end.

This film turned out quite well for a Dutch film. A simple movie that is fun to watch in between with a group of friends. It has all the typical characteristics of a romantic comedy with beautiful actors, a simple story and above all a lot of love and romance. Still, the film’s disappointing ending leaves a strange feeling. A pity because all the ingredients were there to make a really good (Dutch) romantic film.