Love Me Till Monday

12^th July 2014

Shelby Paddison

Shelby Paddison

12 July 2014

Director and screenwriter Justin Hardy has hit the screen with his low-budget rom-com creation Love Me Till Monday. It’s a visually-satisfying film about a young woman on a magical quest for love, but with two-dimensional characters and a minimal, barely existent plotline, it doesn’t quite manage to hit the mark.

It’s hard to sum up the plot because there really isn’t one. It’s more of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, following protagonist Becky (Georgia Maguire) as she goes about her daily life. At the tender age of 25, Becky works in an office and still lives at home, babysitting for her younger brother and counting goldfish. Seemingly out of nowhere, she sparks a relationship with a co-worker (Royce Pierreson) (who is pathetically credited as “Him”), following a house party in which her new-found lover drunkenly steals her book about English magic and refuses to give it back unless she kisses him. It’s cringe-worthy, and not at all romantic. Not that it matters because before we’ve even found out the guy’s name he’s off on a cycling trip, quickly forgotten about and replaced by Becky’s boss Steve (Tim Plester). This new relationship is much more satisfying for the audience: there’s a real build-up and there’s a genuine connection between the two characters, but things come to an abrupt end when Steve claims he “can’t do this again”. No closure, no real explanation as to why, just another plotline dropped on its head.

This is Georgia Maguire’s first major movie role, and while her acting can’t be faulted, the character simply has no depth and no appreciation for anything whatsoever outside of finding love right now. The movie starts as likeable and good-humoured but after 93 minutes it’s just plain sickly. Carving the word “him” into an onion and throwing it into a fire on a full moon is just a little bit beyond believable for a 25-year-old graduate looking for a life partner.

If you’re looking for something with even an ounce of emotional depth, then you might be better suited with Bridget Jones or Love Actually. What begins as an original take on office romance soon turns into Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Becky is so desperate to find a man that she doesn’t bother to find herself, and by the end she’s back to square one: loveless, pathetic, and with no clue what she’s doing.

Shelby Paddison

Love Me Till Monday is released nationwide on 11^th July 2014.

Watch the trailer for Love Me Till Monday here: