Masters of Love

Masters of Love is a story about a group of Londoners having trouble in their romantic relationships. Emmy and Samantha are planning their wedding, Josh and Jenifer are breaking up and Niall is casually seeing someone but doesn’t know where to go from there. Doubts and dissatisfaction drive the protagonists into a downward spiral of sadness and panic, and they attempt to alleviate their frustrations through various forms of escapism.

This is a romantic comedy that strives for authenticity. It succeeds in recreating common scenarios, and the characters do in fact seem like people one would meet around the city. However, neither the characters nor their stories are particularly compelling. The conflicts in the film are unimaginative and their resolutions predictable. Even though the performances are decent, there is no suspense or excitement about what happens next. There is no real comedy to sustain the action, no stimulating dialogues and no stirring of strong emotions. It’s difficult to understand why there was an urge to make such a movie.

Considering the creative potential that a city like London has to offer in terms of stimuli and interesting personalities, this is a rather weak representation of its inhabitants. Masters of Love is focused on creating a realistic picture of average people struggling with love, but it fails to tackle the next step of making it interesting. The picture is reduced to banal conversations, drunkenness and making questionable romantic choices. A stronger effect could have been achieved by boosting the comic aspect or by adding spice and intrigue to the storylines so as to make them less stereotypical and more emotionally engaging. Otherwise, it just comes across as a bland and superficial depiction of random relationships.

Mersa Auda

Masters of Love is released digitally on demand on 13^th July 2020.

Watch the trailer for Masters of Love here: