Review by James Lindorf
Every genre has its stereotypes, and it is not uncommon to see movies that refuse to stray far from what made others successful. No other genre is as slavish to its stereotypes as romcoms. Predicting the outcome is often possible before the opening credits are finished, and some telegraph every twist and turn. They hit their marks like an on-time train pulling into every station along its journey. “Love Type D” is a British romantic comedy from first-time writer/director Sasha Collington that may not break molds but dances to its own beat. On July 9th Vertical Entertainment is bringing “Love Type D” to On-Demand platforms everywhere.
The simplest way to explain “Love Type D” is that it is Bridget Jones starring in the underrated “What’s Your Number.” Like in “Bridget Jones,” our main character Frankie (Maeve Dermody), has struggled in life and love resulting in low self-esteem. Like in “What’s Your Number,” Frankie believes that something will cause her to end up alone. For Anna Farris, it was her number of sexual partners, and for Frankie, it is because she possesses the “dumpee gene.” Ever since her first relationship, Frankie has always been the one being dumped. The dumpers have ranged from friendly to spiteful, all the way to hateful. As funny as some of the lyrics may have been, it is never appropriate to write, record, and upload a song about how you deserve better than someone. Especially when that someone is a 13-year-old girl, and the video gets 4 million views. Desperate to change her destiny of loneliness, Frankie turns to Wilbur (Rory Stroud) and Barnaby (Samuel Jones), a couple of schoolboy science prodigies who are what you would get if you split “Young Sheldon” into two kids. With one getting all of the limited charisma and brains and the other getting the remainder like a middle school remake of “Twins.” With their help, Frankie will try to reverse her misfortune by diving back into a long history of questionable romantic choices.
When we first meet Frankie, she is being dumped by her main love interest Thomas (Oliver Farnworth). Actually, she is dumped via his younger brother Wilber, originally known as just “Thomas’ brother.” It is Wilbur that eventually tells her of the new genetic breakthrough that could be ruining her life. Finally, forming a partnership, Wilbur and Frankie observe and test on those around them. Wilbur at school, where only one kid has the dumpee gene, and Frankie at work where half the office, including her best friend Debra (Elin Phillips), test positive. After gathering a larger test group, Wilbur hypothesizes that if you go back and redo your relationships becoming the dumper, you can deactivate your “D Gene.” Leading to a series of sitcom moments where people try to convince their exes to meet up and get back together with the sole purpose of breaking up with them.
The film’s weakest moment comes after Frankie learns that one of her exes has died. What could have been played as the darkest moment of the film was its silliest. When Frankie should have been resigned to a future of celibacy and heartbreak until finally dying alone, we are given a moment that makes the idea of the dumpee gene plausible. If viewers are not already invested in the characters at that point, it is undoubtedly where many of them will hit their limit and decide to see what’s on Netflix.
“Love Type D” may end up where you expect it to, but by zigging when you expect it to zag and thanks to the performances of Dermody and Stroud, “Love Type D” has charm to spare. The movie was clearly made on a shoestring budget which caused a few technical issues, mainly with the audio. There was a successful Kickstarter campaign back in late 2015 early 2016. Even then, it took three years to finish the movie and another two to find distribution with Vertical and get it available to people everywhere. Everyone involved deserves more work, especially Collington and Stroud. The story and his performance as Wilbur are easily the two most memorable elements. For its charm and desire to subvert some of the romcom tropes, I have to give “Love Type D” a 3.5 out of 5. If she holds on to what makes this film special while learning from what didn’t, I expect Collington to push the upper end of that scale in the future.
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Director: Sasha Collington
Writer: Sasha Collington
Producer: Jessica Benhamou, Sasha Collington, Harry Dodd-Noble
Release Date: July 9th, 2021
Runtime: 1h 35m
Production Co: Midnight Circus Films
