The film The Love Punch—starring British actress Emma Thompson and Irish actor Pierce Brosnan—focuses on an estranged, middle-aged couple trying to live normal, separate lives.
It starts off slowly but starts to pick up when an incident threatens to turn the ex-couple’s future into a bleak one.
Suddenly, the story spices up a bit, as with the boring lives of the main protagonists.
The former husband and wife are forced to embark on an adventure together to get their pensions back.
In the process, they also get another chance at love.
Just like other romantic-comedy movies, The Love Punch is predictable, although it aims to differentiate itself from talk-of-the-town rom-coms.
It offers an alternative to this genre by casting two not-so-young actors—albeit Hollywood A-listers—as the main stars whose chemistry works out well onscreen.
The movie also adds another dimension by mixing in action scenes to the plot.
Just like other romantic-comedy movies, it offers a light-hearted story that aims to put a smile on your face.
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THE PLOT. Kate (Emma) and Richard (Pierce) Jones are divorced and seem to have moved on with their lives. Kate is looking for prospects on the Internet, while Pierce has just broken up with a much younger girlfriend but continues to enjoy life by going out with friends and playing golf.
However, it seems that the two still feel loneliness in the four corners of their houses.
When Richard sells his investment firm to a French businessman named Vincent Kruger (Laurent Lafitte), the pension funds of all his former employees, including his and Kate’s, go down the drain.
This means their financial security is on the line since their nest eggs have been wiped out—unless they do something about it.
The ex-couple embark on a journey together to France to meet and talk to Kruger and take back what is rightfully theirs.
But the task proves to be harder than they initially thought.
So they resort to a desperate measure.
Kate comes up with a crazy idea: steal a large diamond worth $10 million that Kruger has given to his hot French girlfriend (Louise Bourgoin). Kate believes this will be enough to compenstae for the lost pension funds taken away from them by the heartless businessman.
Kate and Richard, along with their two friends, couple Jerry (Timothy Spall) and Penelope (Celia Imrie), plan a covert mission to steal the diamond.
FAIR PUNCH. One drawback of the movie is the fact that it has a tendency to rely on British humor, which might not be everybody's cup of tea.
Secondly, the idea of Emma’s character—a loving mom and intelligent British woman—suggesting to her ex-husband to “nick” a multi-million dollar-worth diamond might raise eyebrows.
That cheesy scene when Kate and Richard are in a life-and-death situation and the latter asks his ex-wife to give their love a second chance if they survive, felt like it fell short of its intended effect.
On the positive side, the movie does a good job of building up interest.
The film becomes more and more engaging and the gags become funnier as the story develops, particularly the part where they assume a la secret agent personas to steal the gem.
The musical score and accompanying songs succeed in creating more impact for a number of scenes in the movie, proving that even a simple story tends to become interesting when the appropriate music is tapped.
Thanks to the convincing performances and effective onscreen chemistry of Pierce and Emma, the film gives a fair punch.
However, it could have delivered a stronger punch if it was able to tug at the heart.
The Love Punch, written and directed by Joel Hopkins, fares well in the romantic-comedy genre. It is saved mainly by the onscreen chemistry of Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson.
The Love Punch will open on April 19, 2014 in cinemas nationwide from Axinite Digicinema.
Ed's Note: The "PEP Review" section carries the views of individual reviewers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the PEP editorial staff.