The general consensus is that Love Is All You Need is a bit like your favorite comfort food - warm and relaxing, but it leaves you with a craving for something sharper.
One thing that becomes apparent from the reviews for Love Is All You Need is that the title’s statement clearly isn’t true. The love story is definitely not enough to hold the film’s head above the (admittedly gorgeous) water of the Naples Bay. The film tells the predictable story of a middle-aged, recently divorced cancer survivor, played by Molly Blixt Egelind, who travels to the little tourist town of Sorrento for her daughter’s wedding. As it so happens, the conveniently single, handsome, middle-aged father of the groom (Pierce Brosnan) is also present at the festivities and after some butting of heads and will-they-won’t-they superficial tension (obligatory for the genre), the couple fall in love, all is resolved and they live happily ever after. You know the drill. We’ve all seen or at least know the story of Mamma Mia, which is what New York Daily News’s Elizabeth Weitzman quite aptly compares this to.
Susan King, writing for the LA Times, on the other hand, praises the film for its naiveté and its “naked vulnerability”. And there might be something to this statement as well. After all, few films have been so completely lacking in irony and cynicism in recent years. But there’s a reason for that – wit and sarcasm tend to make a movie that much more enjoyable.
Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post also has some good things to say about the flick – yes, it dishes out a hearty serving of mushy clichés, but it does so “with such tenderness that it feels like a healing balm”. It seems like this is what director Susanne Bier set out to accomplish. Unlike A Better World, this one is no Oscar bait. But if you’re looking for a little pointless comfort, a la Under the Tuscan Sun (but maybe without the scorpion attack), then Love really might be all you need. If you want to make up your own mind, you can catch the trailer below.
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