BROSNAN AND THOMPSON. Loony mirth and featherweight humor.
Netizens have an appropriate piece of advice for moviegoers who expect great things from Joel Hopkins’ “The Love Punch,” if only because the rom-com marks Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson’s first screen pairing: Manage your expectations.
The rom-com does not have a lofty ambition—it just wants its actors to have a fun time and enjoy the picture-perfect scenery. After all, you don’t watch “Borat” and demand the comedic sophistication and believability of, say, “Annie Hall” from Sacha Baron Cohen.
Of course it’s fair to expect exciting action scenes from former James Bond Pierce, as well as spectacular “dramedic” moments from two-time Oscar winner Emma, who respectively portray Richard and Kate Jones, a divorced British couple who travels to Paris to steal a diamond necklace from the lovely future bride (Louise Bourgoin) of Vincent Kruger (Laurent Lafitte), the greedy business mogul responsible for the loss of their retirement money!
Does that sound too wacky? Wait till you see Thompson doing most of the action stunts while Brosnan doze off on a beach in the swanky Côte d’Azur. You’ll find yourself alternately snickering at the movie’s implausibilities—and wishing you were having as much fun (and sun) as they do!
Zany antics
With their tongues firmly in cheek, Brosnan and Thompson dutifully—and conveniently—ignore the production’s lapses and embrace the loony mirth required to make their zany antics more tolerable than their film’s featherweight humor.
Richard and Kate call in their similarly unhinged friends, Jerry (Timothy Spall) and Penelope (Celia Imrie), to help them pull off their grand larceny and portray the tacky Texans they kidnap (!) before the wedding. If that isn’t challenging enough, Kate must accomplish the harder task of winning the trust of Kruger’s fiancée to pull off their high-stakes heist.
Yes, there are more details in the story that don’t make sense. Having said that, however, it’s certainly disarming to see the usually prissy Thompson hamming it up and trading comedic barbs with Remington Steele’s now much older alter ego, as they help their characters explore the possibility of rekindling their romance. And, why not? Everybody deserve a second chance at love!