This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at St. John's chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.
Content Warning: *Spoilers ahead*
It may not be February anymore, but it’s never not a good time for a little romance. Romance movies, that is. In lieu, I decided to sit down and watch some romance movies this week. Here are my takes on “We Live In Time” and “Prince & Me.”
- “We Live in Time,” 8/10: This movie is one of those movies you need to watch more than once to truly connect with it, in my opinion. Unfortunately, it is still in theaters, but I’ll rewatch it once it’s on streaming platforms. When I watched this, I thought it was a fine film, nothing too dramatic or impactful to me or my emotions. However, I made the mistake of listening to Tik Tok reviews before watching myself and I was expecting it to be a lot sadder than it was. Typically in romance movies, we see a happy ending, but that is not the case with this movie. You see the main character Almut — played by Florence Pugh — choose her desires over her family, including her husband Tobias, played by Andrew Garfield, in an effort to feel accomplished before she dies. I have two issues with this movie. First, if she spent all that time sneaking around to participate in the Bocuse d’Or Competition to leave behind an accomplished legacy, why did you quit when you got to the point you could win it all? Why waste your cooking partner, your family’s and your time like that? Lastly, I didn’t like the ending at all. I’m a stickler for a satisfying ending and this one didn’t end well at all in my opinion. I feel like a great movie has to have a good plot and a good ending. I think the plot was good, but the ending was bad so I can’t say that it’s a great movie. However, I have to give credit where it’s due: the plot was there and it showcased a perspective we don’t often see in romance movies.
- “Prince & Me,” 8.5/10: I was at a loss of words because I love a good old corny romance movie. The movie showcases two characters: Prince Edvard II (or Eddie) and Paige Morgan. Eddie has a troubled party lifestyle that tends to get his name in the news headlines . In contrast, Paige Morgan is a very studious farm girl from Wisconsin who’s been working hard to get to her dream school, Johns Hopkins. After seeing a commercial of how exotic Wisconsin college girls are, Eddie gets the idea to go to school in Wisconsin. Despite his parents’ disapproval, he goes away anyway. Not only is his perspective on the college girls in Wisconsin proven wrong, but he finds himself falling for Paige after working together as lab partners and tutoring each other. But eventually, it is revealed to Paige by the paparazzi that Eddie is the Prince of Denmark. At first, Paige was heartbroken about the lie but she realizes she is also in love and follows him to Denmark. There, he proposes and she becomes the projected Queen of Denmark. However, the pressure gets to her and she ends up breaking up with him, moving back home and finishing undergrad. Like I mentioned in the previous review, I am a stickler for good endings. Unlike “We Live In Time”, this has a good ending, concluding any sort of question or lingering thoughts to the storyline. The now King Edvard arrived at her graduation and declared his love for her and said he would wait for however long she needed to accomplish whatever she wanted to as long as it meant they could be together. I felt it was the perfect, yet cheesy, ending this movie needed that made it a cute and simple romcom.