The Last Letter From Your Lover review is a waste of talent
Two blockbuster heroes share top billing as Shailene Woodley (Divergent) and Felicity Jones (Star Wars: Rogue One) play two women in different times in literary adaptation The Last Letter From Your Lover. Jones plays Ellie, a journalist recovering from a break-up who views love with a degree of scepticism. This is shaken when she discovers love letters between a mysterious “L” and “Boot”, written with so much passion that she has to find out the identities, and what happened next.
Her investigations reveal a tale (told in flashback) from the 1960s, about Jennifer (Woodley), an American socialite whose privileged lifestyle hides a loveless marriage. Left alone with Anthony (Callum Turner), a journalist sent to interview her husband, a romance grows through written correspondence. As Ellie learns more about their love, she begins to see her own relationships in a new light.
There’s something enormously familiar about the plot, which seems like every slushy romance ever devised. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as most genres have their cliches, but it needs a deft hand to stand out from the crowd. Sadly, the script is content with holding our hands through very obvious revelations, and a story that talks a lot about love without ever showing believable examples of it.
Dual timelines can become very noticeable if not timed correctly, and there is a weariness that comes from being hoisted back and forth between the present and past. Ellie’s cynicism about modern love can become grating, particularly when contrasted with the soft, lavish romance of the Sixties scenes. While the two eras may have complimented each other in Jojo Moyes’ original novel, here it makes Jones’ scenes feel unnecessary.
Jones herself is likeable, even when surrounded by far fetched romantic drama tropes like an impossibly glamorous job, and compliant accomplice/love interest in Rory (Nabhaan Rizwan). It’s Woodley that gets the meatier scenes, however, diving head-first into the melodrama opposite Turner, who smoulders in all the right places. Neither couple has particularly gripping chemistry, but the Sixties twists-and-turns are just enough to keep Ellie, and us, holding on until the saccharine finale.
The Last Letter From Your Lover is a glossy tale of lost love that will work for fans of disposable weepies. Those expecting more may return to sender.
The Last Letter From Your Lover is in cinemas from 6th August