The Book of Love (2016)

Just saw this at Heartland Film Festival...it had a few good, funny scenes, but the story is so full of tropes (truth delivered from young child folk voice overs, flashbacks to a "haunting" past, and characters who talk their way through "dramatic exchanges" to realizations) that I thought I might have been watching cheap television. Rather than witnessing an unfolding drama, we were presented with scene after scene of characters stupidly stumbling into a situation where they were neatly arranged in a well- lit space in convenient blocking to "discuss their issues". The movie is excessively scored in prepackaged "Hollywood" music you'd expect from a 1999 blockbuster.

On a positive note, Maisie Williams is a star and I believed a lot of her character. The acting was fine...Sudeikis couldn't have done much more with the part, but his earnestness in the role is cringe- worthy because the writing is so weak. Biel is fun as an unpredictable and lovable n'Orleans lady. Sudeikis' sidekicks are a source of some of the few organic laughs.

All in all, unless you're a massive Biel/Sudeikis fan, I'd skip it. Really. Without a spoiler, the movie follows the two main characters toward a literal suicide mission, but the score is optimistic and the child's voice-over is telling you otherwise - this movie has a surreal disconnect between the story it's telling in music and voice-over and the story it's showing as the characters embark on their final journey. If Herzog had told the same story, it would be clear the characters were insane rather than "on a heartfelt journey".

At the q&a Biel mentioned the script went through 26 rewrites. I would be very very curious to see the original script.