There are plenty of hooks to get people into a romcom. Break up your daughter’s marriage. Maid of honor stealing back bride’s husband. Hooker falls in love with the rich trick of the night. Boy Julia Roberts was on one huh? At the bottom of the list is probably statistics, a word that puts people to sleep instantly. And yet, it’s stats that makes Love At First Sight a success. That, and the ever amazing Haley Lu Richardson.
Richardson stars as college student Hadley Sullivan. Unhappy she has to board a flight to England to be a part of her divorced dad’s (Rob Delaney) new wedding, Hadley misses the flight to London, and is forced to wait for the next one. One that has Oliver Jones (Ben Hardy) on it, also going home for a wedding. Unbeknownst to Hadley and Oliver, their meeting also has a narrator (Jameela Jamil) who may or may not insert themself into the story to achieve the ending they want.
Statistics don’t come out of nowhere for Love At First Sight; Oliver is a stats major at school. But the magic of Love At First Sight is that title. Think about how statistically improbable that occurrence is. The movie uses people’s inherent understanding of that to great effect, as the narrator spouts off how the constantly late Hadley waited 4 minutes too long, and as such missed her flight. She’s also a disorganized mess from worry, and didn’t charge her phone…right where Oliver is working on his schoolwork. The movie uses narrator statistics during dead times to help speed the movie along, or even inserts Jameela Jamil herself into the story to show how important some innocuous people can be to two people supposedly fated to fall in love.
The rest of the movie rides on the audience shipping Ben Hardy and Haley Lu Richardson. Hardy is pretty likable here, very Britsh and charming, but more emotionally fraught, as he’s not exactly thrilled to be going back home. He bounces back and forth with Haley Lu pretty easily, finding a great rhythm on their long overseas flight (which I would have almost preferred to be the entire plot of the movie). Richardson though makes the audience feel that love at first sight. She can’t help but be adorable and sweet even when she’s a hot manic pixie mess. That 1000 watt smile will melt your heart, and her ability to convey all sorts of feelings across multiple subplots makes Haley Lu Richardson the statistical improbability the movie happily shows off to the audience, to great effect.
I’m not sure I believe in Love At First Sight. But I might be convinced if the person I was connecting with was Haley Lu Richardson. I also like this gimmick; let’s start having data scientists fall in love with ballet dancers. And algorithm creators swoon over viral internet puppeteers. Ok, maybe Love At First Sight was the anomaly, good job!