Who here remembers the famous elevator scene in “Serendipity”? If you don’t, let me jog your memory. The scene opens in New York City, Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack are both shopping in this department store and for some reason, I can’t remember, they both reach to grab the same glove at the same time and basically fall madly in love in about 6 minutes flat. They’re both technically betrothed to other people, but since this seems so much like “fate”, Kate comes up with this great idea of testing destiny. They go into a hotel and get into separate elevators. She then says that if they somehow manage to end up on the same floor without telling each other which floor, then she’d believe that they were “meant to be”. So you see Kate get in her elevator and hit Floor 23 and then you see John get into his elevator and hit Floor 23 and you’re thinking “Wow this is going to be the shortest Rom-Com in the history of America” and then at the last second a kid with his dad walks into John’s elevator and presses ALL THE BUTTONS. That moment. Right there. When the kid pushes floors 1-40 in one quick second. THAT feeling is this movie.

First off, “Love, Rosie” is the most inaccurate title for this film because there was not a single time where Rosie actually signed a letter saying “Love, Rosie”. If anything this movie should be called “Love, Alex” or “Dear Rosie” or literally anything else other than the lie that it currently is. Also, can we stop with the cutesy titles? What’s with all this vague, mysterious, ambiguous title-ing? Why can’t we just call a spade a spade and title movies for what they are? Some of my suggestions for this film: “Love with seriously bad timing”, “Forget about one kiss and your life could change for the worse”, “Falling in love with your best friend is super common”, or even “Letters are not a great way to communicate life changing proposals because sometimes your jealous husband will hide them from you”. Now I’m not saying my titles are as polished as I’d like them to be, but they are far more accurate, that’s for sure!

Secondly, even though I am going to rag on this film in the next few paragraphs, I must say that I genuinely liked it and will most likely watch it again soon.

Thirdly, to sum up this movie in one sentence {Spoiler Alert}, it was basically the movie “One Day” (starring Anne Hathaway and the British guy from “Across the Universe”) except no one dies at the end and Rosie has a baby.  It has 100% got to be one of the most dramatic “bad timing” romantic films I have ever seen, and I have seen them ALL: “Romeo and Juliet”, “Out of Africa”, “An English Patient”, “Cast Away”, “The Time Traveler’s Wife”, and every Nicholas Sparks film.

Fourthly, I’d like to just ever so quickly bring up a few things about this film that made me frustrated beyond belief. Once more, I liked this movie and highly recommend it. Now let the ranting begin:

Rant #1: Lily Collins looked 22 years old the ENTIRE movie. She did not age, and yet halfway through the film she has a 12 year old. I found the plot hole. You’re welcome.

Rant #2: Netflix, is it possible at all to just find average-height models? Why does every model that ends up with the main male lead have to be 6 feet tall? Why not just find a pretty 5 foot 2 incher? What’s wrong with short pretty girls, huh? I’m just saying, it’s getting a little redundant and predictable. Oh and also ever so slightly annoying for us 5 foot 6 inchers that want to think we still have a chance. I’m ranting for a friend.

Rant #3: I’m annoyed that the gist of this movie is “two best friends fall in love”. Yes, that’s technically what happens, but what this movie does to you to get you to the ending is just plain cruel. Instead of just having one stormy night or a dramatic football game like a normal romantic film, the main character, Rosie, had to have a baby first, get married to the cheating baby daddy, get divorced, have her father pass and only then could she finally get together with her best friend who also had to marry an adulterer and get divorced as well! I don’t know if this movie is actually encouraging love or making it sound straight up impossible.

Rant #4: The daughter is way too blonde to be a believable product of Lily Collins and whatever brunette actor played her husband. It’s science.

Rant #5: The ending came way too quickly! If you are making us sit through 2 hours of pure love agony, you have to give us at least one full scene of happiness and love and togetherness. I hate all of these “Inception”-esque endings nowadays. I just want to see if the top is going to keep spinning or fall. Don’t let me decide for myself! Tell me! That’s why I paid $13 to watch this. People are so rude these days.

Popcorn Rating: 3 popped corns and 1 kernel

This movie had a good ending and a good beginning. The middle was awful and literally never got better until the very very very end. It’s almost like the anti-“Titanic”. If you would like to add one more frustrating Romantic film to your list then by all means, sit back, open Netflix, and enjoy.

Yours Truly

PFP