Book of Love is a romantic comedy just about as generic as they come, if not for the lead performances from Sam Claflin and Veronica Echegui. Like me, one may recognize Claflin from such films as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, or far stronger romances, Me Before You and Love, Rosie. This time around, Claflin plays struggling, uptight novelist Harry, whose latest book came out six months ago, and has promptly found its way into the “buy one, take three” section of the bookstore. “The Sensible Heart” is a hit to absolutely no one. It comes as a complete shock to Harry when his publicist (character actress Lucy Punch) insists that he go on a press tour. The book is a #1 bestseller in the most unlikely of places: Mexico!
The mystery behind its success is quickly solved during the first stop on his tour. Harry meets Maria (Echegui), the Mexican translator of his text. It seems she has taken some extreme liberties with the material; the entire audience is horny and thirsting after Harry in a major way. Maria has transformed Harry’s novel into steamy erotica that is taking the world by storm. Harry’s agent calls him and says they will be translating the Mexican version back into English in an attempt to replicate its success.
Of course, Harry has more than a few ways he can deal with this, but he takes the high road. On each of their stops, he becomes further smitten with Maria, and the prospect of writing another book together becomes irresistible. Maria knows about love, but Harry does not. She seems to have been burned by a past love. Maria was just a “bored Mexican housewife,” while the extent of Harry’s life talk is that his father was eaten by a seal.
If one has viewed even a single romantic comedy film in their entire life, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to chart the course Book of Love will take us on. Harry and Maria develop feelings, they encounter roadblocks, and must figure out if their love can endure. Can they capture lightning in a bottle for a second time? There is certainly little in the way of surprise, but it is still a cute enough movie to pass the time. One could do much worse in the arena of romantic comedies, but with the constant influx of content, a plethora of other options are at your fingertips.
Book of Love beckons the audience to consume its saucy romance when it opens the page for Amazon Prime on Friday, February 4th.
