Can You Keep A Secret? | Film Review

 

Hey Guys x

This film is an adaptation of a novel by Sophie Kinsella. While I have been a fan of hers for a while, this is one of her only novels that I never read. I've owned it for a while, but it never appealed to me. However, after seeing that this movie was on Netflix, I thought I'd give the movie a chance, and then see if that changed my mind about reading the book.

Emma Corrigan (Alexandra Daddario) is on a plane that she thinks is about to crash. Because of this, she ends up spilling her deepest, darkest secrets to the stranger sitting next to her. However, when she returns to work, she finds out that the stranger is actually Jack Harper (Tyler Hoechlin), the CEO of her company. And he knows all of her secrets...

Despite having a few problems with this film, I really enjoyed it.

Starting with my problems, the main character (Emma) is too over-the-top. This makes everything she says sound unrealistic and ruins the entire first scene when she exposes her secrets. She's not a character that you immediately warm to, as a result.

The overall premise of the film, while interesting, doesn't seem realistic. Fine, it could be plausible to tell a stranger a secret about you, maybe even all your secrets. It could also be plausible to be randomly travelling from the same place as the CEO of your company. It could also be plausible to be seated in the same section as the CEO of your company, after being bumped up to first class for no reason. It could even be plausible to be seated next to them. But all of these events occurring at the same time? I don't know.

It follows the most, worst generic rom-com formula that I'm actually starting to hate - girl with bland boyfriend (or occasionally girl with cheating boyfriend) meets better guy and uses aforementioned boyfriend as an obstacle to getting with the new guy (even though she doesn't understand why she is with aforementioned boyfriend in the first place) ---- This film doesn't do this as badly as others, but it's still overdone.

Because of the premise of the film, it plays a lot on the audience's second-hand embarrassment for Emma, but most of these scenes are a lot more cringey than funny. 

However, speaking of humour, there is a lot of humour from the character of Jack. Not only is his character as a whole quite funny, but his dialogue is also really funny, as well as being endearing. Whereas, while Emma doesn't get any funnier as the film goes on, she does get more endearing and a lot less annoying.

The conflict of the movie, for the most part, makes sense. You can see both sides of the argument, even if everything that happens is a bit far-fetched.

The actors have great chemistry, and this is the thing that completely carries the film. Because while there are great background characters (such as Lissy played by Sunita Mani, Gemma played by Kimiko Glenn, and Cybill played by Laverne Cox), the film lives or dies based on the chemistry between Emma and Jack, and it really works.

Overall, this film was much better than I thought it would be. It was cute, fluffy, and interesting enough to keep you entertained throughout. Definitely give this a watch if you have 95 minutes to kill.

6/10

Lou