Categorising the film as a romance may have done it a disservice. Yes, it's a love story but it's also about how we create a place for ourselves in this life through the stories we tell and our relationships with other people. Will is utterly decent, Eve is free-spirited and perhaps a little rootless but they're both in the process of changing their view of themselves and how they present themselves to others.
As a viewer, you always know more about Will than Eve does which develops a certain investment in the story. There are clues along the way to the secret we already know - it's easy to see how she misses them and the fact that she does means we develop an empathy for her simple optimism. There are also clues, right from the start, to the secret we don't know. Knowing what we know from the outset, it's easier for us to spot those clues and add them up than it is for Eve so the revelation is perhaps less shocking for us than for her; for us it perhaps feels more like an inevitability. It's a clever device that tends to pull viewers in rather than feeling overly manipulative.
Tobias Menzies as Will and Genevieve O'Reilly as Eve both give wonderfully natural and believable performances, making it easy to just lose yourself in the world of the film. Conversations ebb and flow, some things are unsaid, some things are never finished, just as they are in real life (what's the kicker in Will's most embarrassing story? We'll never know!). The London locations give it a "bigger" feel than many low-budget films.
It may be a romance, it may even be a weepy but I think it goes beyond that with a message that is ultimately positive and optimistic - don't be afraid to care and don't be afraid to let others care for you.
As a viewer, you always know more about Will than Eve does which develops a certain investment in the story. There are clues along the way to the secret we already know - it's easy to see how she misses them and the fact that she does means we develop an empathy for her simple optimism. There are also clues, right from the start, to the secret we don't know. Knowing what we know from the outset, it's easier for us to spot those clues and add them up than it is for Eve so the revelation is perhaps less shocking for us than for her; for us it perhaps feels more like an inevitability. It's a clever device that tends to pull viewers in rather than feeling overly manipulative.
Tobias Menzies as Will and Genevieve O'Reilly as Eve both give wonderfully natural and believable performances, making it easy to just lose yourself in the world of the film. Conversations ebb and flow, some things are unsaid, some things are never finished, just as they are in real life (what's the kicker in Will's most embarrassing story? We'll never know!). The London locations give it a "bigger" feel than many low-budget films.
It may be a romance, it may even be a weepy but I think it goes beyond that with a message that is ultimately positive and optimistic - don't be afraid to care and don't be afraid to let others care for you.