Love Is Thicker Than Water (2016)

Directed by: Emily Harris, Ate de Jong | minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Ellie Kendrick, Lydia Wilson, Jessica Gunning, Johnny Flynn, Al Weaver, Juliet Stevenson, Henry Goodman, Matt Barber, Daniel Eghan, Alex Lanipekun, Luke Neal, Sharon Morgan, Edward Akrout, Phelim Kelly, Remy Beasley, Paul A Munday , Robert Blythe

The stalky camerawork from ‘Zusje’, animations such as ‘Phileine says sorry’, ‘Love is Thicker than Water’ cast in an English setting makes a familiar, Dutch impression at the outset. Hey, will we see Ate de Jong on the title role as director and producer? The one from ‘Drop Dead Fred’ and ‘The Bombardment’? Didn’t De Jong live in London for fourteen years?

Story: Vida comes from a wealthy Jewish family from London, bicycle courier Arthur was born into a working-class family in Wales. Their burgeoning love is “tried to the test” because of their differences in origin, it is said. They are turned on quite a bit, making the film feel somewhat made. As if cello player Vida should be shocked that the working class from Wales never locks the toilet when peeing. The aforementioned Jan, Jans and de Kinder-like animations are pedantic, as if the viewer needs a comic strip to understand the film.

In short: does this viewer feel taken seriously? He also has to take a pee, but not before he has given some compliments. Johnny Flynn (Arthur) makes a childish and disarming impression. The chemistry with Lydia Wilson – by far the better actor of the two – is certainly there (what a sweet couple!), but dramatically ‘Love is Thicker than Water’ is more a series of idealistic commercials with the theme of ‘nascent relationships’ than a total product that lasts. If you’re filming in gritty Port Talbot with Arthur’s family, make it look gritty too and leave that gloss off please.

The film keeps you on track with the chemistry between Wilson and Flynn. The lovable Arthur is well mannered, the often unreasonable Vida quotes from films like ‘True Romance’. This makes you a bit twenty again if you manage to let go of the skepticism. On the other hand, films don’t have to be made just because there’s chemistry, they also have to show us something – ahem – transcendental. We doubt, because love is transcendent in itself – even when it is made recognizable in film. ‘Love is Thicker than Water’, however, remains too much in a good casting and a sympathetic appearance, including a biologically responsible singer-songwriter soundtrack.

While a more poignant synergy can be generated between a Welsh working-class son and a diplomat daughter from a family with a Holocaust past than ‘it’s gonna be a disaster’ (she), ‘you shouldn’t put peanut butter in the fridge’ (he ) or Jewish fun around Mother’s coffin. Anyway, relationships are more likely to be destroyed by toothpaste caps than by disaster. As viewers, however, we are interested in how relationships develop in such processes, after the bunnies’ Duracell batteries have run out. That makes this sympathetic film a half-hearted attempt to show that love should transcend origin.