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Canberra Today 15°/18° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review / ‘Love Is Now’ (M) *** and a half

“Love Is Now”DIRECTOR Jim Lounsbury’s screenplay for this romantic drama has an agreeable freshness speckled with moments that, by sometimes not adding up, add to its challenges.

Mercurial free spirit Audrey (Claire van der Boom), scarcely acquainted with aspiring photographer Dean (Eamon Farren), responds to an instant fizz of attraction by suggesting that they get on their pushbikes tomorrow morning and ride up the NSW north coast.

For Audrey, it’s a nostalgia trip. She takes Dean to the farms where she picked fruit two years ago. She introduces him to friends she made at that time. She may be smitten with Dean but not so much so that she won’t respond to some of those young men. Dean finds one of the young women attractive.

When Audrey goes missing, Dean, desperate to find her, traces her to the local hospital, where admission records show Audrey being there two years ago.

Ah, mystery. From the vicissitudes of optimistic young love, “Love Is Now” moves into deeper enquiry into questions of Audrey’s very existence. As it unfolded, I couldn’t help remembering Ali MacGraw breaking Ryan O’Neal’s heart in “Love Story” (1970) by dying unseemly early. Lounsbury maintains a firm hand on the plot’s two main threads. Dean will have enduring memories tinged with grief, but his photographs from the trip will resonate among others in that profession well enough to suggest an optimistic future.

At Hoyts Belconnen

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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