Love Sent Message: Review of the film with Celine Dion te

Let’s be honest: if you want some love advice from a pop star, who better to do it? Celine Dionthe woman behind love songs like “My Heart Will Go On” and “The Power of Love”? send love messagea film produced by the singer and vehicle for her first big screen role, uses this idea in an unpretentious but captivating love story.

The artist brings to life a slightly fictionalized version of herself, eventually becoming a sort of love guru for music critic Rob Burns (Sam Heughan, from Outlander). After a great disappointment, he distrusts love and reluctantly gets the job of profiling Celine Dion, whose skepticism soon attracts his attention. The singer steals the show when she performs, whether it’s for the hilarious ear twitches she gives or for the moments of genuine emotion as she talks about the death of the love of her life: the businessman and musician Rene Angelilwho died in 2016.

Dion’s real and personal story connects here with that of the feature film’s other protagonist, illustrator Mira Ray (Priyanka Chopra Jonas, from Citadel) who lives in grief after losing her boyfriend in an accident. Two years after the death, Mira finds comfort by texting her on her boyfriend’s old number unaware that it is now Rob’s work number. Moved by the messages, the critic decides to go in search of the person behind it.

From then on, the film, based on Sofie Cramer’s book SMS For You, shamelessly surrendered to novel clichés. There’s the traditional “Meet Cute” (that longawaited moment when both protagonists meet), the hilarious supporting characters, and the conflict the couple must overcome to finally live their love. None of this discredits the director’s feature film Jim Strouse (People, Places and Things), which intentionally plays with the convenience of familiarity.

The (long) time it takes the protagonists to find each other is the film’s biggest flaw, as it leads to the same themes being dragged out for too long. What makes up for that, though, is that Chopra and Heughan are so charismatic that even when they’re apart, audiences remain engrossed in and drawn into their characters’ stories. Amor Sendou Mensagem doesn’t set out to revolutionize romantic comedy or delve deeply into grief. At most, audiences might experience a mild déjà vu recalling other examples of the genre; but at least Strouse knows how to drink from the right sources.