Squared Love

Romantic comedies have a special gift (or curse, depending on how one looks at it) of exhausting the same old cliches and unsurprising plotlines. Squared Love is no exception. However, somehow Netflix’s latest addition manages to keep viewers entertained and engaged for over two hours. 

Despite the fact that it features plenty of eye-rolling, recycled genre themes – from the womaniser-falls-in-love-with-shy-nerd element, to the ridiculous belief that coloured contacts and a wig can completely conceal someone’s identity – the movie was surprisingly delightful overall. Maybe it’s the enjoyable aesthetic – pretty cars, a good-looking cast, a sunny Warsaw summer – or perhaps it’s the comfort one finds when watching a good, old-fashioned rom-com. 

This satisfaction could also be due to how director Filip Zlyber spent a third of the film building up the characters’ backstories rather than showing viewers a traditional setup, climax and fall of events. The protagonists only meet twice in the first 45 minutes of the movie, for instance. The plot is pretty straightforward: a famous playboy, Enzo (Mateusz Banasiuk), gets caught up between two women, Monika, a bashful teacher, and Klaudia, a mysterious model (Adrianna Chlebicka). However, little does he know that the two are in fact the same person. As the story progresses, he begins to fall in love with both for contrasting reasons. 

Whatever it is that keeps spectators watching to the end, it wasn’t as bad as originally anticipated when approaching a foreign-language romantic comedy. Typically pictures of this nature try their hardest to emulate Western classics – from Notting Hill to 27 Dresses and beyond – rather than embrace their differences. Although Squared Love definitely borrowed tropes from these types of films, it wasn’t as off-putting as expected and can provide its audience a much-needed sense of familiarity.

Kari Megeed

Squared Love is released on Netflix on 11^th February 2021.

Watch the trailer for Squared Love here: