952. Stuck In Love (2012)

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff

Director: Josh Boone

Running Time: 97 mins

Stuck In Love is an American film about a family of writers who encounter all of the best and worst things about falling in love over the course of one year, where friendships are broken and families come together to support one another.

This film is a very down-to-earth and understated romantic drama. With a lot of heart and a lot of brains, it tells the story of the troubles of love in a fantastically realistic way, making for a both heartwarming and heartbreaking story that you can’t look away from.

One of the most excellent parts of this whole film is its wide range of brilliant performances, including Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Connelly, Lily Collins, Nat Wolff, Logan Lerman, Kristen Bell and Liana Liberato.

Every single person here puts in a great show as very human and realistic characters, which is what really helps this to be such a compelling romantic drama, because, through the excellent performances and good characterisation, you are fully engrossed in the live of these people, and are supporting each and every one of them for various reasons, and even though no one is perfect here, they’re all flawed enough in their own way for it to be all the more believable.

The story is one of real tumultuous drama too. It’s unpredictable and both positive and negative at all times, showing all the bittersweet consequences of falling in love, and it’s that realistic attitude towards the main theme that makes this such a compelling story, because it tells you that things can get incredibly tough, but it’s not the worst thing in the world, and things will hopefully turn out as well as they can do.

As well as being a successful and intriguing romantic drama, this film has some good humour to it too. It’s not quite on the level of a rom-com per se, but it’s still as entertaining a watch as it is compelling, which is what can lift your spirits after some of the more hard-hitting parts of this story, however it still never cheapens the real drama here; nothing ever descends into cheesy territory, and is all in fact still absolutely fascinating to watch.

Overall, this gets a 7.9, because it’s a brilliantly dramatic and emotional series of love stories that will engross you to the full and leave a pretty strong impression on you by the end.