‘Love Language’ nearly earns its rom com clichés

The traditional Hollywood rom com has, with occasional exception, fallen out of style and favor, but Joey Power’s Love Language seeks to restore its cheesy glory. The tale of a struggling author who ghostwrites people’s wedding vows, it hits a lot of the beats you might expect, but with a verve and comic sensibility befitting its younger-Millennial character. This pays dividends for the most part, as the movie earns the majority of its clichés. However, that it doesn’t earn the one that matters most—the gooey, reconciliatory ending—is a pretty severe point against it.

That said, the South By Southwest title has an inviting style at first, beginning with YA author and potato chip company social media manager Lou (Chloë Grace Moretz) amidst an emotional crisis during the bachelorette party of her best friend Tilda (Billie Lourd). Lou’s drunken bathtub freakout is interspersed with repeated flashbacks of her fiancé dumping her out of the blue, a scene repeated multiple times to emphasize her troubled state of mind. It’s a fun little flourish, and that the film doesn’t have much by way of overt formal flair from this point isn’t necessarily a bad thing; the genre, after all, depends on simplicity of execution.

In that vein, Love Language moves breezily into its story of Tilda asking Lou to write her vows, which are gorgeous and poetic, and draw the interest of other brides-to-be after some positive word of mouth. At Tilda’s wedding, Lou’s other best friend Gus (Lukas Gage) also introduces her to Tilda’s single cousin Dash (Anthony Ramos), a comically enthusiastic grindset himbo who shows an interest in her, and ends up veering in and out of her life. Months go by, and Lou’s side hustle leads her to being hired for vow duty by the prim-and-proper entrepreneur Olivia (Isabel May), whose fiancé Lou happens to know. Enter Warren (Manny Jacinto), the effortlessly charming, slightly goofy boy she fell in love with in college, whom she now, unbeknownst to him, has the perfect excuse to spend time with despite his engagement. As far as Olivia knows, it’s research.

The film feels broadly modeled after the 2001 Jennifer Lopez-Matthew McConaughey rom com The Wedding Planner, but has enough by way of originality to set it apart. For one thing, it may not be a stretch to call it as much a friendship comedy as a romantic one; Lou’s conversations with besties Tilda and Gus inform much of her ongoing romantic dilemma, while providing drama of their own. Between Tilda’s bachelorette party and Gus’s mysterious romance with a man he met on Tinder, Lou always seems to find the least opportune moment to make events and conversations about her, and although this prickly emotional selfishness is understandable—she did, after all, just have her heart broken before being lashed around by college nostalgia—her friends sticking by her, or confronting her with unpleasant truths, makes for a worthwhile B-plot that informs how she behaves elsewhere.

Moretz, who first arrived on the scene as a teenager playing edgier roles (like a foul-mouthed child superhero in Kick-Ass) gets to settle into something more traditionally feminine while still bringing some of her signature tomboyishness. She’s by no means a radical departure from the usual rom com lead, but just different enough to make Lou an interesting fit for familiar modes, between the characters constant burrito Doordash-ing and her many un-made-up appearances over video calls for her job, where she feels on the verge of burnout. The rom com professional is usually more put together, if occasionally late or scattered, but Lou’s occasional sloppiness is realistically endearing, and immediately relatable.

Her dynamic with Warren is effortless too. Moretz and Jacinto may be a decade apart in age, but they share an immediate on-screen camaraderie, and genuinely feel like old friends who could have, in some other universe, been something more. The way Power catches Moretz’s fleeting glances imbues each of these interactions with fun sparks, which, although they might not burst with sexual chemistry, speak to something more ambiguous in the space of wondering: “What if?” Ramos, meanwhile, plays Dash with a puppy dog innocence; he’s obviously just an option or a fling for Lou, but that he feels like a three-dimensional person recenters the question of how self-centered she might be in her pursuit of romance, as she plays with his feelings while potentially inserting herself into Warren and Olivia’s relationship.

That Love Language largely goes the predictable route is comfortable, and it also firmly puts the “comedy” back in romantic comedy. Gage and Lourd make for not only soulful platonic foils, but they keep the film’s connective tissue afloat and alive through hilarious banter. However, when Power tries to subvert expectations is when things finally go awry, right at the finish line. Going against the grain of an established genre is by no means a bad thing, and can yield fascinating results if approached with clarity. At first, the movie’s climactic swerves feel purposeful, and verge on deconstructive. However, its concluding scenes and romantic confessions depend entirely on realizations and emotional stakes that, although the characters insist are palpable, feel plucked from thin air, to the point of feeling like a fever dream.

That the movie’s ending feels tacked on almost at random might prevent Love Language from joining the pantheon of great romantic films, or even memorable ones people talk about a decade from now. But that it’s otherwise satisfactory, and entertaining enough in the moment, is nothing if not rom com appropriate.