This Year's Love (1999) User Reviews

Funny, quirky Brit-flick

[han solo-4 · 7/10 · 24 March 1999]

This Year's Love follows the (love) lives of 6 inhabitants of London's Camden area.

The movie starts a bit like Four Weddings and A Funeral. Two people in bed wake up, lay there for a moment, then realise that they're late for a wedding. The only difference is that it's their wedding!

After getting spliced, they go off to the reception. 35 minutes into wedded bliss, the groom Danny, is told by a guest that his new wife had sex with the best man. Danny confronts Hannah and blows his top before leaving.

So begins two years of "swapping" between the 6 characters.

Kathy Burke, veteran of comedy from her Harry Enfield days, plays the best character - Mary - a self proclaimed "fat bird" who is surprised at the attentions she gets from the 3 men.

Hannah is played by the gorgeous Catherine McCormack, previously seen in Braveheart. In the second section of the film, two years on from the wedding, she is flatmate to Ian Hart's emotionally (and a bit mentally) unstable character. She meets, and is seduced by, Emily Woof (from The Full Monty). Ian Hart, thinking that he stands a chance with Hannah, tries to commit suicide when her walks in on the two girls in bed.

The performances from the main cast are fine throughout and the film, whilst not being a laugh-a-minute comedy, certainly has its funny scenes. The nomadic Cameron meets his current girlfriend Sophie's rich parents and advises her father that he's not usually not too choosy about his women, in fact he'd "f*** a barber's floor".

This Year's Love is a film that will not attain the heights of other recent Brit-flicks like The Full Monty and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but still deserves its place amongst the Top 10 of the last few years' best British Independent movies.

Ink on a pin

[Ron Plasma · 6/10 · 8 March 1999]

I hope those who were enticed by the rather crass UK television promotion of This Years Love weren't disappointed by what was actually quite a well structured romp through a north London location as yet theatrically free of cliched gangsters or bright red buses. I was particularly impressed by the nerve of suggesting that somewhere outside Alba should be inhabited by more than one Scot! Come on! They're everywhere. In hoards! Those not in the know may also have been taken in by the "fat bird" lines of Dame Kathy Burke. Don't be fooled. Look out for her canonisation before the end of the year.

Here's another fine British film

[eavgerinos · 6/10 · 2 March 1999]

Here's another fine British film, and I have to say it again, the film industry of this island is working fine! And this is exactly the sort of films European cinema in general does better than Hollywood, light comedies about ordinary people, realistic stories about realistic characters without the pretentious tears of the American melodramas. The story spreads over to years focusing on the love affairs of 3 women, Hannah (Catherine McCormack, the beautiful wife of Gibson in Braveheart (1995)), Mary (Kathy Burke, superb in Oldman's Nil by Mouth (1997), also in Elizabeth (1998)) and Sophie (the also beautiful Jennifer Ehle, seen in Wilde (1997)), and 3 men, Danny (Douglas Henshall), Cameron (Dougray Scott) and "I don't remember", who exchange lovers between them and are all linked in this strange way. The story seems to be triggered by the wedding in the starting sequence, but to me it is only the vehicle of introducing the characters. The setting is the Camden Town area of London and the time is today, so we get a glimpse of reality in the English capital. I have to reveal that the humouristic tour de force is the lager shower of Cameron in the pub. For all the sincere and unpretentious cinema a loving 6 out of 10.

Strangeley appealing serio-comedy

[cujimmie · 21 February 1999]

"This Year's Love" (18) - Warner Village Cinema, Inverness - 19 February 1999

Whatever it is, this film will never be classified as coming out of the Beatrice Potter School of Charm Cinema. It's rough and rude, immoral and bawdy, slap-stick and frightening and dispiriting. Yet I liked it!

It certainly isn't the sort of film your vicar or grannie would want to be seen watching but I defy anyone to sit through the two hours of sexual relationships without laughing out loud in spite of themselves at the below-the-belt humour, wondering all the while if life is really like this in Camden Town. It's a film that lingers over such sights as tattooing and bed hopping, coke snorting and boozing and annual partner shuffling. It covers three years of the partnership permutations of six individuals. What they all have in common is a need for affection, a fantastic command of swear words, a terrible need to empty all booze glasses and fag packets, desire for self destruction, and a denial that there is any future to look forward to.

There's no real plot. It's the sparks coming from the rubbing together of the fascinating dysfunctional characters that lights the tinder. We start off with Scotsman tattooist Douglas Henshall storming out of his wedding reception when he discovers that his wife of ten minutes, Scotswoman dress designer Catherine MacCormack, has been "practising" with his best man. He takes consolation in the arms of Heathrow Airport cleaner, Kathy Burke. We switch to Scotsman Dougray Scott, untalented artist with the paint brush, who makes a play for anything in skirts with "fine bone structure". In spite of his problems with personal hygiene - you can smell his hair from the first row in the balcony - he is the next to form a liaison with Kathy Burke. When Jennifer Ehle arrives on the scene it's as an upper class single mother with a permanent need for a bit of rough. She lives alone in a barge, wears Doc Martins and dreadlocks, disowns her posh background. We've heard that story too often for it to be original and this thread is a weak link in the chain of relationships. Nevertheless it serves to introduce the sixth shy nobody character, Ian Hart, who turns out to be the one who terrifies you out of your seat when he loses his control. There's a bit of lesbianism thrown in and the writer director, David Kane, reveals his roots and social leanings when he does a hatchet job on the upper crust at a cocktail party. He don't like 'em. That's fer sure, fer sure.

I would hate to think that Camden Town as portrayed in this film represents the folk that live there, or anywhere in UK. Of course it doesn't any more than Coronation Street represents Manchester or Stendaz represents the east end of London. It's knowing that these warped and flawed characters are cartoons that makes the film acceptable. It's their dialogue and delivery that makes the film so enjoyable. And there's an added educational bonus. Your personal database of taboo words and base picturesque expressions will be expanded enormously. Even Channel 4 junkies will find novelties here. Let's say 8* out of 10. Maybe even 9.

C U James

How 2 performances can make a film

[Ronne · 7/10 · 18 March 1999]

For me, this film was lifted by the performances of Ian Harte and Kathy Burke. Both of these actors have had interesting careers in which they've not always made the right choices and here the film would be a much slighter thing without them. Ian Harte is absolutely outstanding - you see him disintegrate before your eyes while Kathy Burke's self-hatred must resonate with many women. It makes a change to see a London that a lot of Brits would recognise with geography that makes sense (apart from the taxi to Heathrow from Camden perhaps?). For all I enjoyed films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, it's nice to see the country I actually live in represented more realistically on screen.

Why Four Weddings?

[James K · 7/10 · 14 May 1999]

I can't understand why so many people feel the need to compare this film to 'Four Weddings & a Funeral'. It's blatantly nothing like it. Yes, it's about a group of people who have relationships with each other, but that's where the resemblance ends. For a start, it's not really a comedy. Rather a drama with some amusing lines. If you want a light-hearted romantic comedy then this is not the film you're looking for.

This is not a brilliant film, but it's not bad at all. There are some strong performances and some funny lines. Unfortunately, all the characters (except Kathy Burke's) are unsympathetic and not a little irritating. And this is probably a film for Britons, since the accents can be indecipherable at times (I had trouble, and I am British). In conclusion, worth seeing but not unmissable.

This Year's Love

[jboothmillard · 6/10 · 24 April 2007]

I recognised the poster with the kissed frog, and there were some good people in it, so I wasn't going to dismiss it even if it is not as good as I hoped it would be. Basically a group of thirty-somethings flit around Camden Town swapping partners in search of love, lust and life. The stories include the marriage Danny (Primeval's Douglas Henshall) and Hannah (Catherine McCormack) ending after half an hour when his affair is revealed. Hannah leaves the reception, gets drunk, and beds artist Cameron (Enigma's Dougray Scott). Danny meanwhile is having almost a fling with Cameron's friend, struggling singer Mary (Kathy Burke). There is also the story of the relationship between comic book fan Liam (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's Ian Hart) and Sophie (Jennifer Ehle), who almost can't seem to get away from each other. Also starring Emily Woof as Alice, Sophie Okonedo as Denise and Goodnight Mister Tom's Annabelle Apsion as the Speed Dating Hostess. For me, this film is interest is mainly with the Burke and Hart characters. Good!

Pointless, unconvincing and contrived

[PhilGuest · 2/10 · 14 February 1999]

This Year's Love is a pointless, unconvincing and contrived film charting the lovelives of six very different people. Although there is a terrific cast (Kathy Burke's self-loathing airport cleaner and Ian Hart's loser in love are two examples that spring to mind), it is wasted on David Kane's weak script and direction.

The great performances tend to cover up the fact that the characters here are so unlikeable that you don't really care what happens to them. The various sexual relationships between them are clumsily introduced and subsequently torn apart - and by the end of the film, there's a horribly unconvincing happy ending for two of the characters, who don't appear to have learnt anything from their exploits.

Shame to say, the British film industry revival takes a step back with this one.

Painfully realistic movie, sometimes funny, often poignant

[Redlesweb · 10/10 · 7 February 2009]

I first watched this movie in 1999 when I was 20. 10 years later it hasn't lost any of its relevance and stark reality that makes it one of the most enjoyable yet sadly poignant movies I have seen.

This Year's Love never intended to be the RomCom its unfairly been categorised into. It is a take on modern life, modern love, the loneliness of living in London, the breakdown of relationships and the forming of new ones. It is not supposed to represent debauchery, instead seeking to demonstrate the trials and tribulations so many of us experience in our quest for happiness, acceptance and of course love. Don't we all crave love yet loathe it in equal measures?? I identify with this movie in too many ways to disclose on IMDb; I just believe this movie should be granted more credit and accolade than it has.

Some Good Comedy but a bit of a disappointing story line overall.

[Tone-10 · 6/10 · 21 February 1999]

I was looking forward to this film and was expecting a lot from it. Kathy Burke is one of the UK's top female comedians and she does really sparkle in this film. I am afraid that even KB's talent doesn't make this a good movie.

The story uses very weak coincidences to link the scenes together. Some of the scenes are actually very good and there are some great lines and visual gags. But the plot is so tired you just can't help thinking that the film is a lot of sketches that have been strung together.

All in all if you like Kathy Burke and enjoy an English comedy then this film will make you laugh, but I would advise you to watch it not expecting too much.

A barely smirkworthy Brit-flick

[Flagrant-Baronessa · 4/10 · 25 July 2006]

Eager to make a Brit-flick romantic comedy, director David Kane carves out this disposable product called This Year's Love which is essentially about six different loser-characters living in London and swapping partners on and off for two years. There is no more depth to it that that, aside from the odd, half-hearted attempt to add more background to the characters. This is only successful in one of them, namely Kathy Burke's character of a self-deemed "fat bird" with no self-esteem and it is mostly because she plays her with effortless conviction that she is enjoyable to watch. This character is also one of the few sources for comedy in This Year's Love. I know the rest of the film tries to be funny but it never quite gets there; it barely manages smirkworthy.

Aside from Burke, some other decent parts are the way these six characters meet. It never feels forced. You'd think that managing six intertwining relationships would be difficult to pull off, but this feels very natural in the film -- the characters meet in the most ordinary, normal and logical ways like in a pub, at an airport, at a supermarket or at an auction. After all, they all live in the same vicinity -- Camden.

This Year's Love isn't bad exactly, but since it manages neither funny nor romantic I'd say this is a pretty fatal failure of a romantic comedy.

4/10

Finally, a London based romantic comedy that gets it right.

[PrinceMishkin · 8/10 · 22 February 1999]

Words that fill me with dread: 'A Joel Schumacher Film' obviously, 'A Romatic Comedy from London', equally horrid. Yet finally someone has got it right - not Joel Schumacher of course.

Peter Kane's salty comedy is something quite new, an unsentimental, contemporary La Ronde set in Camden Lock. His bone dry script is adorned by a magic cast, not least the indomitable Kathy Burke, who is surely now England's greatest treasure. There is a real courage here, no corners are cut and no easy, neat solutions are adopted. If we are a little disgusted by the smugness of the artsy characters it is more than compensated for by their terrible sadness. Very human, very witty and beamed in from a different galaxy from the one that Hugh Grant inhabits.

Awkward if sometimes interesting but too many flaws

[JasonS · 4/10 · 20 February 1999]

Clumsy, overlong, directionless with too many implausible plot lines. Wafer thin characterisation but some very good performances (although sadly not Kathy Burke). Some funny moments but no real laughs (though some of the audience whooped and clapped!). But what really bothered me was the total lack of narrative force: this film could have ended an hour earlier and you'd be none the poorer (or wiser). Oh... and Jennifer Erhle paddled in the shallow waters...

Intelligent and real

[Millais · 26 February 1999]

Well, I have read other comments less than flattering but my wife and I loved it. I don't care about the coincidences and any small contrivances, the characters were so well portrayed that by the end I knew them all personally and could relate them to people in my past. Don't get picky, do you want more of this or more 'You've got Mail'? I know what I prefer.

Like watching grass grow.

[CharltonBoy · 5/10 · 20 February 2003]

I should have known what this film would be like because it was premiered on a hardly ever watched Cable channel but i was determined to watch it symply because it starred the Brilliant Kathy Burke. It just goes to show no matter how good an actress is if she is in a film that is as dull as this she will still look poor. This film is about a group of 30 something batchelors who's lives are intertwined while they sleep and argue with each other and in the mean time bore the viewer silly. You may be mistaken in thinking this is set in glasgow not London because of the amount of Scottish actors. This film is a typical case of casting a great actress in a lousy film in a roll that does not suit her at all symply to have her name in the credits to sell the film. I would advise you to steer well clear. 5 out of 10.

a little gem

[sellishall · 10/10 · 16 December 2005]

found this film by mistake and wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised, a real gem of a movie. Cathy Burke singing was a surprise and she wasn't that bad, The characters were realistic and I know the area well so can attest to this, happy endings were not mandatory in this film which makes it more poignant. Could imagine another film with these characters being made five years down the line and still holding our interest. Dougray Scott was surprisingly attractive even with greasy hair, he showed a good understanding of the character. All in all the actors in this film showed why British film-making is up there with the best.

A romantic comedy

[chris-107 · 4/10 · 16 February 1999]

Set in modern day Camden London, This Years Love focuses around the relationships of six mix matched characters, three men and three women, who in the space of the 100 minute film managed to sleep with each member of the opposite sex (and a lesbian affair) which is basically what the film is all about, with an attempt to toss in a bit of romance to disguise the fact that this film is just about sleeping around, so when you see the sixth bit of how's your father, you get the impression that it may be drawing to an inevitable end.

Cameron is a sleazy greasy rat who relies on the latest version of the lonely hearts column in the local paper for his next ‘bit of stuff', then there's Danny ,a Scottish flamboyant tattoo artists who ends his marriage with Hannah, the common as muck checkout girl, after 35 minutes. This years love also attempts to tackle the class issue with Louise, a middle classed single mother living a working classed life style. Kathy Burke plays a low self esteemed depressed cleaner who believes she is every man's nightmare .Her character works well as the audience always knows a laugh is just on its way when she steps on screen. Finally the sixth character to make up the gang is Liam, a lonely comic collector who becomes over obsessive about women, but still through his nerdy specs and scruffy clothes manages to bed 3 women. Confused? I was.

This years love is no doubt very funny, and the humour works well to hides the fact that this film is about six losers in life all looking for the next bit of nooky. A predictable film but with some great laughs.

Lost Gem

[blearyboy · 9/10 · 29 November 2007]

This Year's Love was released at a time in the fit of madness that followed Four Weddings And A Funeral, when everyone was desperate to rush out their very British romantic comedies. This Year's Love sadly got lumped it with all of these (generally poor) movies, which is a pity because it's one of the finest British films of the nineties.

It's not cute, although it does have charm. It's not a comedy, although there are some very funny bits in it. It's not particularly romantic, although it's probably a lot more honest about love than anything Richard Curtis has ever written. What it is is an example of the kind of movie Britain can do like almost nobody else: a small, dense, focused study of well-written characters being slowly destroyed by their own flaws, unfolding gradually like a really great novel. It's dense and meaty and thoughtful and sad, and essential viewing for anyone who's left cold by the more treacle vision of the Four Weddings... school of movie-making.

It does have a frantic dash to the airport at the end, I must admit. Although even that defies normal expectations.

One Of The Worst British Movies...................

[robert_gray · 2/10 · 6 September 2006]

....I have seen! Great cast and soundtrack but the both the story line and script are awful.

Whilst understanding that people may want a more 'gritty' romantic comedy than say Four Weddings or Love Actually this film fails to deliver.

In fact I do not think it was a comedy at all! Also I felt no feeling or love towards any of the characters.

All of them did not have my sympathy or understanding as quite frankly they are a dismal self obsessed bunch (Sophie being the worst offender!) This is meant to be more 'real' than the other British films I have mentioned. But thank God I have not ever come across people like this during my relationships in real life!!! There are much better 'realistic' British films out there and great romantic comedies like Four Weddings, Notting Hill etc etc

Yes, and...?

[phiggins · 4 February 2002]

Compared to its subsequent b****rd offspring ("Elephant Juice" and "Born Romantic") this is a faultless masterpiece. Is it really enough to get a few admittedly very good actors together, get them to do a few mildly funny, mildly touching scenes and then edit it all together? Perhaps it would be if this film didn't have ideas above its station. I'm all for having characters who are f*cked-up and mentally disturbed, but how dare the makers of "This Year's Love" introduce just such a character (Liam, played by Ian Hart) and have him involved with all the main female characters in the movie and then just remove him from the story when they can no longer think of what to do with him? This is insulting and offensive. The balanced, "normal" people are all okay, so that's all that matters. Disgraceful. Liam is the only one of the characters who can't cope with all this bed-hopping, being dumped, falling in and out of love and all the rest of it. Yes, all his girlfriends in this film deserve better, but what about him? Who cares? Clearly not the makers of this half-hearted film.

There are pleasures to be had - Dougray Scott is excellent as the serial womaniser and complete git. His scene with Sophie towards the end ("Yes - meeeee!") is great. And Sophie has a superb monologue directed at the hapless Liam ("coming faster than a speeding bullet") which ends with her son waving "Bye Bye" to him. A fine scene. Henshall and McCormack are also good as ever. Though I wish someone would explain to London film-makers that people who work on supermarket tills rarely if ever get taxis from Camden to Heathrow. It would have been much funnier to show her getting on the tube and being endlessly frustrated at delays, crowds, breakdowns, broken escalators. See the end of Kingsley Amis's "Lucky Jim" for details of how this sort of scene can be done. Kathy Burke is, of course, superb. For some inexplicable reason, however, the band she plays in is fronted by the ever-loathsome David Gray. The scene where she takes centre stage is hilarious as Mister Gray fights to hog the limelight, waving his head about and thrashing his acoustic for all it's worth - thankfully the film-makers seem quite aware of how vile he is, and track in to the lovely kathy, forcing him out of the frame. Well done.

There are worse ways to spend two hours of your life (actually going to Camden, for example) but this film could have been so much better. Then again, on the evidence of the follow-up, "Born Romantic", they could also do a whole lot worse.

Meh

[bjacob · 3/10 · 19 June 2017]

Worth seeing for the various scenes of Camden in the late Nineties. Apart from that I found almost impossible to relate to anything that was happening on the screen. Affairs are started, continued and/or abandoned on a whim. The characters have all the depth of a very shallow puddle and generally are extremely difficult to care for. In a sense, it's understandable they do sleep around: their partners' personalities are so uniform, what makes it possible to discriminate between one or the other?

A marginally interesting side is that, watching it today, it has a time capsule aspects. No cell phones, no social media: everything is dealt with in person. I missed that kind of youth by just a handful of years, having come of age slightly later. I envy them a little.

REAL British Romantic Comedy

[R_A_Cousins · 9/10 · 17 April 2007]

I'll keep this short and sweet. I'm not really a fan of romantic comedies, never have been but I was told I had to watch this one and I'm so glad I did as I loved every minute of it. I would recommend this film to anyone, as it is a whole different culture to your average British romantic comedy. You delve into the grungy side of England and is of course set in the most famous alternative town in England; Camden. I feel that this is a realistic film, something an everyday person could relate to unlike these dime a dozen British Hugh Grant esquire romantic comdies. This film is easily in my top 10 films so I'll give this a....9 =]

A realistic dramatic comedy

[coyets · 10/10 · 5 September 2002]

Just as in real life, we are introduced to characters who are not going anywhere, have only vague goals in life, and are still experimenting, most of them being fairly young. Because the film is set in Camden Town, the characters we are introduced to are fairly extreme in the above respects, but such are exactly the sort of people I met and got to know in places in London like that. The choices of relationship reflect the immature experimentation. The cinema viewer can see that the relationships cannot possibly work out. The whole film was so realistic that I sometimes did not know whether to laugh or to cry. Sophie (Jennifer Ehle), the upper class lady living in a down-trodden environment but loath to cut off her ties with her roots, was particularly well played.

After getting to know the characters through their interactions with each of the others, the film then steered to an end which, on reflection, seemed to be the only possible solution for everybody.

This film is brilliant. It is far more realistic than The Full Monty, let alone Notting Hill.

Not to be confused with "Notting Hill", this is far better.

[stephen-90 · 10/10 · 19 November 2000]

It could be said that "This Year's Love" is for Britain what "Friends" is for the USA. Three guys, three girls, swapping relationships and having a laugh along the way. What makes "This Year's Love" different is that the characters are flawed in a way that prevents them from finding true happiness.

Though arguably an acquired taste, this is a BRILLIANT film. The acting is superb, the characters so very different. There are many moments of humour, though it is not laugh-out-loud, and plenty of sadness, some of it almost disturbing.

So to the story. Set in London's Camden Town, we follow the Glaswegian couple Danny (Douglas Henshall) and the gorgeous Hannah (Catherine McCormack) on their wedding day. Danny learns than Hannah has been sleeping with his best mate and storms out.

Hannah gets drunk and falls into the arms of Cameron, (another Scot) a struggling artist with a penchant for preying on vulnerable women. We then meet Cameron's flatmate Liam (Ian Hart) a naive, obsessive Liverpudlian who scrapes a living selling collectable comics. He "seduces" Sophie (Jennifer Ehle) a high-society drop out with child. Danny, meanwhile meets self-confessed "fat bird" Mary (Kathy Burke), but all three relationships deteriorate quickly.

I won't say much more - you'll have to see the film for yourself. But be warned, there is no "Hollywood" ending, though some people find happiness. This film has lived in the Shadow of "Brit-hits" such as "Four Weddings", "Notting Hill" and "Lock Stock..". Do yourself a favour and see this film, it is far superior. 10/10

A typical hip screw-o-rama.

[fedor8 · 11 April 2007]

Could just as well have been titled "This Month's Love", the characters here being as fickle as they are. Very early on things get predictable; it's obvious the newly-weds would hook up at the end again, and it was obvious that everyone would get to screw everyone else. There is nothing wrong with a (romantic) comedy/drama of this kind, and a typical 90s British one at that (i.e. Not too original), but when it professes to be a movie about love that's when things get ridiculous.

The cheated-upon groom gives a speech about love at the end that is a scene straight out of the most formulaic Hollywood piece of crap imaginable. He talks about love and forgiveness - but it has nothing to do with the real world! Forgiveness is all well and fine, but how are we supposed to take McCormack's character seriously? She cheats on her man with his best friend/best man, days before the wedding, and we're supposed to root for them to hook up again. So how is she likable? In what kind of a world of twisted morals does the writer dwell in? Does he engage in orgies? Is he a swinger?

It'd be alright if this were an all-out comedy, but there is little to take too seriously here, like McCormack becoming a lesbian (ha-ha), the absurd transformation of the comic-book nerd (and why the suicide attempt? Suddenly it was heavy drama! Huh??), and even the comparatively tiny - but very silly - detail about McCormack being stuck in London because she can't get a cab for Heathrow. (What about the damn subway?! There's a direct line to the friggin' airport!) The acting and dialogues are not bad, the characters are relatively fun, but by half-time the film has used up most of the stuff in its limited bag of tricks, and it even becomes hard to follow who has screwed whom, and who'll be next. (It helps to take notes.) As far as the comedy is concerned, there is barely anything that should have you laughing here. You might grin 2-3 times but that's about it.