For cynical (yet nonsensical) reasons, I was sure I was gonna give this Lucy Hale rom-com a fairly low score. Despite the fact I willingly rented the damn thing and like Lucy Hale. So I was at war with myself watching it, sure that it had enough probl… oh damn… that was actually super romantic… and sweet! Oh no! I’m falling for Lucy Hale!!

The flick stars Hale and Nat Wolff as a young couple who meet at a wedding. They begin to talk about themselves and go through a flashback litany of their past relationships while falling in love with each other (over one night since, y’know, Hollywood).

The flashbacks were the worst part of this movie, easily. Some of them might have been cute at times but they didn’t serve much of a purpose other than to fill out the runtime. And that’s both good and bad because this is one of the rare rom-coms that doesn’t have a lie or misunderstanding at its center. So I guess they had to fill the time with something else?

So when I say the flashbacks almost derailed the film and yet I’m giving it a fairly high score, something deep must have gone right. And what went right was Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff. She’s her usual lovely self and spends over half the film in a sexy red dress that demands to be admired. Nat Wolff… was probably miscast. He looks to boyish… which, to be fair, is part of his backstory with his relationships… but I couldn’t quite get past it until the final act. But, then again, I’m not of the Nat Wolff-admiring persuasion so I might be dead wrong.

Unlike many romcoms (and full romances), there are moments of pure lovely non-sappy romanticism that really got me. That made me say “awww” and “wowsers… that was hot”. The romance angle comes fully together in a remarkably sweet finale speech that shot my score way up. The final scene had me at hello, basically.

I’m probably over-rating the film as a whole… but in those moments where it kills, it kills. And I’m dead. Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff made this film by sheer force of will. And the writer and director for just doing a straight forward romance, no stupid misunderstandings getting in the way.

Score: 85