Rating: NR | Runtime: 82 minutes
Release Date: February 3rd, 2023 (UK/USA)
Studio: Signature Entertainment / Brainstorm Media
Director(s): Jamie Adams
Writer(s): Jamie Adams

It’s a nightmare situation … for everyone involved.

It shouldn’t surprise you to find a credit at the end of Jamie Adams’ She Is Love stating that “additional material” was provided by the cast. This is a mostly plotless drama that unwittingly pits two ex-spouses together for the first time in ten years to examine what such a reunion might bring.

The assumption is that Adams let Haley Bennett and Sam Riley in on the history their Patricia and Idris shared before allowing them to scratch away at the awkwardness of finding themselves face-to-face with the emotional damage wrought. How do they become more comfortable? More vulnerable? Perhaps even crueler? And how will they react when coming out the other end of the catharsis?

This won’t be a film for everyone as a result. It meanders, turns a lot of focus towards Idris’ current girlfriend (Marisa Abela’s Louise) despite her never feeling like more than an obstacle for him to cling onto or avoid, and ultimately finds itself utilizing a crosscut technique that throws linear time away to supply moments that are as beautiful as they are incomplete.

You either get on that wavelength to wade through the alcohol-infused memories sparked by two wonderful lead performances or you sit and wonder whether there will ever be a point. Can two troubled souls nostalgic for parts of who they were while vehemently uninterested in others that are finding their footing to let go of the sadness and rage that’s filled the void of their respective absences be the point?

I’d argue it can because there’s a lot of meat to the bones of these performances regardless of whether there’s anything else. Would it have been better as a short film without the Louise stuff taking focus away for little payoff (at least that I can see)? Probably. She Is Love is never better than when past and present collide to show us everything Patricia and Idris have learned during their time apart is perhaps the result of suppressing who they were together and who they are at their core.

That’s not to say they didn’t need to “grow up” and put such things behind them or that they shouldn’t allow themselves to revisit such selfish actions and desires now. It’s simply to say we are all complicated animals built by our life experiences. Sometimes we grow out of the past and sometimes we grow to realize how to better accept its impact.

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Sam Riley and Haley Bennett in SHE IS LOVE; courtesy of Signature Entertainment.