Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fresh and Exciting

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It was totally surprising just how great this movie is. I watched and now I want the movie. Outstanding performances Jason, Maise, and Jessica.

OMG, you have no idea how much i hated this movie. Honestly the only reason i watched in the first place was because of a personal project (that i dropped BTW). I saw it had negative reviews, but i never expected to be this awful. Instead of going on too much details i'll give you the three main problems i have with it.Forced Melodrama: I get this is a film, believe me i should now, but the world building the people, psychological status, events are presented on a very convoluted and unrealistic way. You don't buy pretty much anything, there is force melodrama to create "tension" but it ends up being laughable.Annoying characters: Starting with the teenager (whose name i don't remember nor do i want to), who has a god awful accent, looks for materials to fulfill her stupid dream. Of course she has an alcoholic uncle, she loves her father even though he abandoned her to go for his selfish dream. The two workers are absolutely obnoxious. Thank god the wife character appears so little cause i hated her since the first scene. The only redeeming character is the Henry, with again falls for this stupid and unrealistic plot.Awful message: I'm not against twisted morals in movies, no really i 'm not, but this POS gives the typical message i hate in movies. So near the end of the movie when Henry recovers from his lost and understands that the teenager's dream is idiotic and continues with his life. BUT NO, risked all: a good job, nice house, and a nice life. Leave that "shallow" past to go on a fulfilling adventure. Diarrhea in celluloid indeed.Aside from that it looks mostly cheap, the lighting is bad, the color palette is wrong, the sets looks somewhat fake, the cinematography is just awkward. I guess Jason Sudeikis performance is decent, but gets diminish with the rest of the cast and the stupid, horrible and forced plot.It's good for those who like garbage massage movies.

Let's be completely honest and upfront, The Book of Love is not a good movie. It's not even a movie I would recommend to people. However, it's heart is in the right place. I know the film was made for people who are going through tragedies and are looking to move on. That's fine and all, but the execution is far from where it could have been with an idea like this. The Book of Love deals with two people, Henry and Millie, both with tragic pasts and looking for something to keep them going through difficult times. They share a bond together over tragedy, and decide to band together and build a boat to deal with their loss, and possibly go on an adventure of a lifetime. What follows is a serious of mostly convoluted events with several cheesy conflicts and dialogue that more or less lead to a B-movie version of Life of Pi meets The Way Way Back? Both are modern-day classics in my opinion, and The Book of Love has nowhere near the gravitas or emotional effect those films do, but I think that was certainly the tone they were going for. The problem is, the film never earns its emotional beats. Instead, it feels more like a glorified hallmark drama, just with great actors. The only major positive is Justin Timberlake's score, and yes I said Justin Timberlake. Why in the world I decided to watch this film, I'm not entirely sure, probably because of Maisie Williams, but it's not a film I will ever revisit.4.4/10

Just saw this at Heartland Film Festival...it had a few good, funny scenes, but the story is so full of tropes (truth delivered from young child folk voice overs, flashbacks to a "haunting" past, and characters who talk their way through "dramatic exchanges" to realizations) that I thought I might have been watching cheap television. Rather than witnessing an unfolding drama, we were presented with scene after scene of characters stupidly stumbling into a situation where they were neatly arranged in a well- lit space in convenient blocking to "discuss their issues". The movie is excessively scored in prepackaged "Hollywood" music you'd expect from a 1999 blockbuster.On a positive note, Maisie Williams is a star and I believed a lot of her character. The acting was fine...Sudeikis couldn't have done much more with the part, but his earnestness in the role is cringe- worthy because the writing is so weak. Biel is fun as an unpredictable and lovable n'Orleans lady. Sudeikis' sidekicks are a source of some of the few organic laughs. All in all, unless you're a massive Biel/Sudeikis fan, I'd skip it. Really. Without a spoiler, the movie follows the two main characters toward a literal suicide mission, but the score is optimistic and the child's voice-over is telling you otherwise - this movie has a surreal disconnect between the story it's telling in music and voice-over and the story it's showing as the characters embark on their final journey. If Herzog had told the same story, it would be clear the characters were insane rather than "on a heartfelt journey".At the q&a Biel mentioned the script went through 26 rewrites. I would be very very curious to see the original script.