By now, I have stressed enough my disappointment with romantic comedies and romance nowadays, so you would understand me if I took on Lola Versus with a lot of hesitation towards its outcome. To my surprise, Lola Versus was actually quite stylish with how the love played out but I wouldn’t say I’m happy the way the story got to that point 100%. There were some cruel and realistic moments not every romantic comedy would tackle, some uncomfortable life-like situations but I was a bit sad to see so little of Joel Kinnaman on the screen because I absolutely love him! The little mistakes were all about structure and the inability to have a scene that defines the movie.
Lola Versus is definitely not a movie for all the romance lovers, I would say it is a movie for those pessimistic people that hate Valentine’s Day (extremely suitable for me in that case) and see love as just something of a disaster to say at least. Greta Gerwing plays Lola, the girl who gets dumped by her fiancé (Joel Kinnaman) and has to start all over again at the age of almost 30. This is cruel and an interesting beginning for a romantic movie, though, would I call this a romantic comedy? I would, but IMDb does not, so I wonder, if my idea of romance is that altered that I see Lola Versus as a movie of romance when it is not? Who knows, I guess it is a matter of defining things but I for sure see a movie that revolves around a woman getting over a man and getting it on (kind of) with his best friend (Hamish Linklater) as a romantic comedy!
That is the harsh truth behind this movie, the going back to your ex and then hooking up with his best friend while drunk and faking it. That sounds bad, that was as bad to look at as it sounds but it was a nice touch to the whole movie and probably my favorite scene story wise. Favorite overall scene was the one where she gets in bed with her ex who conveniently is played by a tall Swedish Viking Kinnaman who I am not ashamed to like a lot. He is a bit grumpy looking, and rough around the edges while his voice is smooth and.. I should stop now because this review is not about Joel Kinnaman, although I would like to make it all about him. Just saying.
Back to the movie that I can’t really say much else about, I think it is a light, one wine bottle movie that you can watch alone or with some friends (then more bottles of wine) but nobody will actually remember it in the end. They won’t probably even recall the lesson to be learned from it, which is that not every love story ends up well and not every hook-up leads to a relationship. Daryl Wein who directed and co-wrote it with Zoe Lister Jones, who played Lola’s friend, have little experience with Breaking Upwards (2009) being their only feature film but I do see some hope. Time and experience would add a bit of structure here and there, give certain elements of coherence and attach that something special that I could hold on to. And yes, I am being optimistic about this movie though I probably won’t revisit it, because I am in a happy mood. So don’t take this review seriously (I’m just super excited to be back) and don’t watch this one while being sober and don’t by any means think that this is a good movie, I just mean that it had its moments and it had Joel Kinnaman. So, in other words, the idea behind it is good, the reality aspect is enjoyable but it needed to marinade.
I’ve been putting off watching this one. A small part of me is intrigued by the presence of Gerwig, but the greater part was dreading seeing another blah romance film. After reading this, I think I’ll pass on it. Thanks, M.R.
No problem! I would skipped it too but I like Kinnaman.
Like you, I’m so frustrated with the state of the romantic comedy. It’s such a great genre and Hollywood seems to take the easy way out every time!
Exactly, the potential is there.. yet, something terrible is happening.
I didn’t really like this film. I just found it so repetitive and annoying. Even though I like Gerwig, her character was just terrible!
She did have to do terrible things what a 29 year old should not do .. yet, I see movies with women being offensive and awful so I don’t know. I just thing that she and the character were so pissed at not being able to do more scenes with Kinnaman that they were moody and weird during the whole movie.
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