"This Time Next Year" an old-school rom-com with contemporary sparkle

Okay, so I am kicking off my first ever post on a site that reviews predominantly romance novels with a movie.

I have just set up my Netgalley account and am in the process of starting my first batch of pre-publication novels, just being honest. :-))

However, I watched This Time Next Year yesterday on a popular streaming service and I lovvvved it so much that I had to write about it. The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Sophie Cousens. Let's dive in.

Okay, so the plot. dashing, uber successful management consultant (Quinn) with major commitment issues meets old fashioned romantic, hard-pressed working girl called Minnie who is trying to run a pie shop with a social conscience and struggling, despite the help of her closest friends. Quinn's girlfriend has just dumped him and posted an embarrassing online video about how he can't commit. Minnie's boyfriend is narcissistic and she quickly dumps him in a bid to t improve her life.

The two meet, find a spark which quickly fizzles. It's not just that they have nothing in common. In fact, they have EVERYTHING in common, having been born in the same hospital on New Year's day.

Without going into the details, Minnie resents Quinn because of an unresolved misunderstanding about his choice of name, which was meant to be her name. The point being, that's it adds a lot of tension to the relationship.

But hold on a minute! They keep finding more in common, like meeting for outdoor swimming in a scenic London Park. They struggle to deny their attraction for each other, but he keeps failing to commit until she gives up on him, and is heartbroken.

She closes her unprofitable pie business, they drift further apart. However, towards the end she is getting on her feet again and, partly thanks to Quinn's early advice, she successfully pitches a new social enterprise pie making idea to some Angel investors who appear keen. Sadly though, Minnie and Quinn seem, to be headed in irreconcilable directions.

And yet, on New Year's Eve, with their birthdays hours away, sat miserable at her home, she throws caution to the wind, ushering in a final, fabulous, beautiful denouement with Quinn at the end. I won't spoil it.

The characters

Okay, so Sophie Cookson who plays Minnie is just fabulous in the role. So authentic and layered in her evocation of the emotional rollercoaster of falling in love with someone who clearly isn't right for her and who she should hate anyway, because he stole her name. Almost never in makeup throughout the movie, she explodes with vibrant, joyous energy that renders her utterly beautiful as a person and compelling as a protagonist. I simply adored her in this role.

Lucien Laviscount as Quinn is somewhat outshone by his darling Minnie. The movie isn't exclusively viewed through Minnie's point of view, but it feels like the story, more than the plot, is mostly about her (see below on sub plot) and this renders Quinn as slightly two dimensional. That said, his layers are unpeeled nicely midway through the movie, when we discover his relationships with women have in part been shaped by the way he has supported his anxious mum since his father left her. At that point I found myself empathizing for him much more and wanting them both to overcome the barriers to their love.

And, when it comes down to it, the two characters enjoy great on-screen chemistry, particularly their first encounter at outdoor swimming which was super hot despite the yard of space between them and it obviously being a chilly day in London! Clever.

Sub-plots

There are a couple of sub-plots, the main one being about the relationship between both mums. Quinn's mum Tara is largely housebound with anxiety induced agoraphobia and Minnie's mum Connie is still resentful of Tara, which bleeds into Minnie's relationship with Quinn, at first. Both mums find a way to reconnect and, while not a major plotline, is really sweet and also helps both to come to a better understanding of their relationships with their children. Nice.

The real story

The real story is about how, just sometimes, we meet someone who, despite the obvious obstacles and barriers, we are simply meant to be with for the rest of our life.

Seemingly a conventional, very satisfying plot

And that's what makes this movie so clever, because, like me, you might not realize that that is the real story of this movie until the very end. From start to finish the movie is beautifully acted with moderately expensive production values and shot in the gorgeous environs of central London. Overall, the movie makes you feel good but otherwise seems fairly orthodox but in a satisfying way. There nothing to dislike about it, and as you roll into the final fifteen minutes you can almost plot the glidepath of the movie until the happy ending.

And that's kind of what happens.

And yet.

They throw in one hell of a lovely plot twist right in the final scene which I, for one, did not see coming AT ALL.

It was gorgeous, beautiful, so, so sweet and romantic and made the whole movie make much more sense. That elevated the movie, in my eyes, from a perfectly satisfying and sweet four star watch with the sort of ending I always want from a romance, to a 5 star.

This was a proper old-fashioned romance of the Notting Hill vein, but without the ensemble cast, and with lots of contemporary pazzaz thrown it.

I will definitely watch This Time Next Year again (maybe this time next year...?) and can't recommend it enough. I hope, if you get a chance to watch it, that you enjoy it too.