By Roshan Chandy
Priyanka Chopra outqueens Celine Dion off screen!
Since marrying one of the Jonas Brothers, Priyanka Chopra has been manifesting herself a very fashionable and stylistically chaste career as a Hollywood A-lister. Not content with being one of the biggest Bollywood stars on the planet and considered one of the world’s most desirable women, Priyanka could yet win our queen of hearts on this side of the Atlantic too. Perhaps Love Again is just the vehicle? It’s got everything – love, heart and lots of Celine Dion. Although remarkably Priyanka is so good she actually outqueens Celine Dion off the screen!
Love Again is based on a 2016 German film which was, in turn, based on a novel by Sofia Cramer. It’s the story of an Indian American woman trying to win the hearts of the hunkiest writer on the block; while writing a feature on one of the biggest names in the music industry in the very heart-shaped face of Celine Dion. Think of this as a 2020s version of Sleepless In Seattle in the 90s or Serendipity (2002) in the 2000s. It’s every bit as good…
Of course, it helps that I fancy Priyanka and I love these kind of circumstantial rom-coms like Sleepless and Serendipity which are both two of my favourite romances of all time. I can’t say I feel the same way about Celine Dion, however, who will notoriously go down in my heart for sinking the Titanic in emo porn back in 1997. The good thing is Celine doesn’t sing at all until the end credits. There’s plenty of time in between to enjoy the dating life of Priyanka Chopra and her “babe”.
I loved Chopra and Sam Heughan’s smartphone interactions. We seem to be living in an era of “smartphone movies” recently what with thrillers like Missing (2023) and Profile (2018). Love Again isn’t as disturbing or dark as those movies, but it does feature text and Instagram messages turning up on the big screen with CAPTIONED LETTERS like “I think my babe just went to the bathroom to do push ups”. The chemistry between the two actors is just irresistible and full of both love and sexual tension. You’ll be begging for the two of them to stay together for the rest of their lives and a date with Priyanka is every bit as good as you imagine it would be. What a lucky guy that Jonas Brother is!
I also really enjoyed Sofia Barclay’s performance as Mira’s sister. It really must be and is difficult acting opposite a star as big as Priyanka, but Barclay makes it work. Her storyline really taps into the immigrant American experience in the most millennial kind of way. It’s also yet another example of outstanding biracial representation…
I can’t say this movie made me fall in love with Celine Dion and her music. I still think Celine is the reason I don’t really like Titanic that much despite Kate Winslet’s outstanding performance in that movie. But, then again, she only gets to sing in the closing credits…
But mainly this is Priyanka Chopra’s show and she’s proving to being every bit as good as a Hollywood actress as she is a Bollywood one – currently flirting with Richard Madden in Citadel (2023). That and she has honestly never looked SO beautiful…
Love Again is a snowy, festive, Christmas-coated treat of a rom-com. The only thing is it isn’t Christmas…
Rating: 4/5