20 minutes into this movie and I felt like this had already gone off the rails of reality. I understand trains are late but a conductor that's somehow magically comprehensible AND philosophical? That's almost as silly as a jacket with Deus Ex Machina on it. Which is almost as silly as waking up and writing Deus Ex Machina in a notebook like it's something profound you'll have to remember.

Yara and Charles make a very attractive couple. I don't always like Yara in glam shots and red carpet looks but I think she's adorable here. And while even if I were into dudes I'm not sure I'd be into Charles. I can easily see his appeal physically and as a character. I'd love to watch a movie about these two falling in love. But I don't think this movie has the juice. I feel like the movie wants me to think they went all in during the Karaoke scene which was imo kinda lame. So much potential in that scene and :shrug: aside from a title drop kinda nothing. The movies best parts are the ones it doesn't even recognize. The scene on the train when Natasha is leaning on Daniel was almost as charming as the line that made me add this movie to my watchlist in the first place

>Daniel: My [key ingredients to fall in love are friendship, chemistry, the X factor

>Natasha: What's the X factor

>Daniel: Don't worry, we got it.

That line still give me frisson, but the movie doesn't realize how utterly pimp that line is. If I wasn't looking for it I think it would have been easy to not even realize he said it. The train scene comes and goes

I think Yara and Charles have good chemistry. The problem is I don't think they have _great_ chemistry and the movie writes them as if they have great chemistry. Luckily for this specific problem. The movie is bad at putting them together in ways that are interesting and compelling and let their chemistry ripple. As opposed to something like _Destination Wedding (2018)_ where Winona Ryder's Lindsay and Keanu Reeves' Frank get lots of time to interact and develop with each other letting their on screen chemistry just flourish. Too much of this movie is told in montage. That can give the movie a dream like quality but it detracts from the reality the movie is trying to create where Natasha and Daniel are supposed to be falling in and realizing that they're in love with each other. I felt like too much of it must have happened when I wasn't looking.

I wish the needle-drops were better. I absolutely love _Crimson and Clover_ but it doesn't feel relevant to the characters or the target audience. It feels like the sort of drop someone making the movie thought would be awesome for teenagers forgetting that teenagers today are not themselves when they were under 20.

For all the flaws this movie had it doesn't have a *lot* of deadbeat anger. There are always these scenes where people just inject anger amid dramatic irony. Like when a woman has a man over and the husband catches her and they fight and breakup for 20-30 minutes because she refused to explain that the man was her cousin who was going through a mental health crisis and thought he was wearing the emperor's clothes. He misinterpreted something and refuses to contact her until she apologizes. We're left watching them pine for each other in private and hate each other in public all because of something that would have been explained in maybe two sentences. I _hate_ those scenes.

When Charles and Natasha have their romance required break up segment it's not excessively cringe. But it is a little cringe. Not because it happens but because that's some of the weakest dialog in the movie, and in part because of the pacing of the movie they don't really have a lot of time to spend being separated.

Overall this movie knows what it is. It's a romance in the classical (or paint-by-numbers) tradition. It may have problems but none of them are extremely bad. Natasha is an annoying bratty character but not so annoying I don't want for her to succeed even if she is completely unable to empathize with her parents pain. Even if she does selfishly assume that people who try and fail just didn't try at all. It's got enough earnestness to overcome how cheesy it is. Does it feel real though? Nah. Not really. It leans too far into the dream aesthetic. Daniel is a pretty solid character most of the time but his dialog is a little too perfect at times. Kinda like how Natasha is a little too self-centered not in the sense that she's unable to care about people but in the sense that they never factor into her understanding of the world. It's fun though. Little easier watch than I expected. I cheered when they were happy. I got choked up when they were sad.