'Squared Love All Over Again' Review: A big scoop of romcom feels served with a side of clichés
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The sequel to the 2021 movie 'Squared Love' just dropped on Netflix and we hopped on the platform to give it an honest review. At the core of every romcom is the story of how the guy gets the girl in the end and there's a silver lining to all of their love problems. 'Squared Love All Over Again' uses some tried and tested genre clichés to continue the story of Monika Grabarczyk aka Klaudia and Enzo.
It has been directed by Filip Zylber, known for his work in 'Heart Parade' and 'Squared Love'. The Polish movie has all the story beats that get the viewers to come full circle by the end. But the less than ideal dialogue delivery and emoting cripples this romcom.
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What is the story behind 'Squared Love All Over Again'?
The first film, 'Squared Love,' focused on how the couple met and fell in love. Enzo, a journalist and womanizer, unexpectedly falls in love with an enigmatic model, which changes his life. What complicates their relationship is the fact that the model leads a double life as a humble teacher. The sequel 'Squared Love All Over Again' depicts the numerous challenges and struggles that this journalist and teacher face after they decide to be together. The story isn't just about Enzo and Monika, but also about many other characters whose lives are interconnected with the leads. In continuation from the first part 'Squared Love', Monika and Enzo start dating when Monika becomes a prominent figure in the entertainment industry, leading her secret life as Klaudia, the famous supermodel. Enzo gets fired from his job and gets banned from every other agency. When down-to-earth teacher Monika is offered to feature as a host in a children's show, things take a turn. Monika and Enzo have to figure out how make their relationship work.
While reluctant to take the hosting gig, Monika ends up taking up the job. Later, the entire saga of cliches plays out around the 'working woman and house husband' trope. Everyday fights erupt with Enzo cooking for Monika but her ending up being late at work more often than not. Later she gets manipulated by the antagonist, Rafal Wisniewski, who works with the agency that hired Monika to host the gig in the first place, to do some PR stunts to be in the tabloids. This puts an additional strain on Monika and Enzo's relationship.
How many cliches are too many cliches?
The story lacks emotion and the dialogue delivery looks utterly wooden. For example, there is a scene in the movie where Enzo confesses to Monika that he has been fired, and Monika's reaction comes as uninterested as she responds to him with a plain "oh!" without any expression. Although the color grading and cinematography make the film 'look' beautiful, the script is too shallow and feels derivative at best. The soundtrack of the movie is well chosen and suits the scene it's added in, but the entire movie has back-to-back music in the background, leaving less space for good dialogue delivery.
Romcom is made for the viewer to not put any effort to keep up with the story, but 'Squared Love All Over Again' doesn't factually make sense at points in the story. Although the script is weak and unconvincing, it does a good job portraying the side characters. For instance, Monika's dad who owns a garage, falls in love with Ola, who gives her car to be repaired just before an important race she is taking part in.
All-in-all, the movie is a good choice for a Friday night when you want a mindless romcom to binge on and don't really pay that much attention to the storyline. 'Squared Love All Over Again' is now available on Netflix.
