Playing It Cool

The stunningly clichéd script is brought to life by debutant Justin Reardon's flashy direction in which we are 'swept into' Me's life with quirky camerawork. The film cuts to different time zones, and even different countries, and Me even becomes Oriental for a while – it's all showy work but it seems more like a director's advertising showreel rather than a completely piece of cinema. With a better script, and a better production that guarantees him a solid release, Reardon can surely make a good movie, this one ultimately is a very boring and forgettable one.

While the romance element clicks, the film doesn't quite work as a comedy. A few one-liners do make you giggle, but that's that. In fact, the film works as a drama, especially towards the end. We particularly liked how the film draws parallels with Love in the Time of Cholera. Nonetheless, if you are open to watching an unromantic love story and are obsessed with Chris Evans' smouldering looks, you won't mind this unconventional 'guy flick' about the bad boy and his forbidden love.

With less of action between the protagonists and more of discerning analysis of the emotion, "love", the script only surfs through the subject. Romance, "an adventurous risk", is tackled theoretically and thus, loses its focus occasionally. Also, the climax ends on a weak note, hence the film does not create or leave an impact on the viewers.

Towards the end of the film, we see our hero making a breathless dash though the airport, as he's trying to find Her. He notes to himself that what he's really doing is trying to outrun a cliché. Well, Playing It Cool doesn't manage to outrun any of those clichés it attempts to satirise. What a pity.

A predictable and very familiar rom-com...Full of clichés, but enjoyable in parts.