Lovesong

Lovesong stars Riley Keough as Sarah, who starts the movie with a toddler and an absentee husband. Sarah’s friend Mindy visits and they end up taking a road trip. On this trip, the two women get drunk and end up sleeping together. Mindy takes off soon after this and the two women don’t see each other again for three years. They meet again after Mindy announces she’s getting married.

Not a lot happens in Lovesong yet I enjoyed it. The dialogue, directing and performances are all solid. Jenna Malone and especially Riley Keough give great performances. This is the best performance from Keough that I’ve seen. She really anchors this movie and generates sympathy towards her character. I cared for these characters and was left with some genuine human emotion once the film was through.

If you don’t like toddlers, you may have a problem with this movie as there is one in the first half. However I will say that they did a good job with the toddler. I can’t really say the toddler’s performance was good because I’m not sure if the kid knew enough about what was going on to really perform. But the director, actor and any child-wranglers all came together well. Riley Keough does a great job as an actress in this respect also. I think it must be weird to have to bond with this very young child who is definitely not yours but she is very good with her and has really good chemistry with her fake-kid.

I don’t have that many thoughts about this movie and even fewer critiques. The major thing that did bug me, and Lovesong is far from the only movie to do this, is that there’s a kissing scene right after Sarah vomits. That’s gross! I wouldn’t kiss anyone right after they’d vomited regardless of my feelings towards them or the state of our current relationship. Please never put a kiss directly after vomiting in a movie ever again.

Overall, Lovesong is a really solid little movie. I can’t imagine it will be anyone’s favourite WLW film but it’s also fairly free of overt flaws. Everyone involved with the film is wholly competent and as a result, the finished product is too. There are many, many worse movies you could watch than the quiet, character drama that is Lovesong.

Overall rating: 6.6/10

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