The Book of Love

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Henry (played by Jason Sudeikis) is widowed when his wife, Penny (played by Jessica Biel) is killed in a car accident.  As a way to cope, he befriends a homeless teenager named Millie (played by Maisie Williams) build a raft so she can sail the Atlantic. One of the first things I noticed about this movie was that it was filled with people trying (often failing) to speak with southern and Cajun accents. The worst offender has got to be Jason Sudeikis himself. The man struggles with his accent, often slipping in and out of it. Even If I don’t necessarily care for Jessica Biel’s southern accent, at least she sticks to it when she’s on-screen. Justin Timberlake composed the music in this movie. I mention this because I do think the man is talented. The problem is the music feels incredibly overbearing nine times out of ten. There are attempts at humor sprinkled throughout the movie, and they typically fall flat. The pacing in this movie was sluggish. By the time I reached the half hour mark, I must have thought “what a snooze” to myself multiple times. There is very little CGI used in the movie, thankfully. I say this because when it actually is used, it’s pretty bad. I actually do want to commend the performances in the movie, especially Maisie Williams. Her accent may not be that good (it does get better as the movie goes on), but the rest of her performance actually is. I feel like there is a character to her, even she is, admittedly, a cliché. The same thing could also be said of Jason Sudeikis in the movie, bad attempt at an accent, but decent enough performance overall. Despite some solid performances and attempts at character development, this movie suffers from awful pacing and a somewhat predictable story.

3 / 10