Starring Haley Lu Richardson as Hadley Sullivan and Ben Hardy as Oliver Jones, Love at First Sight is the perfect way to crack open the fall into winter season, now streaming on Netflix.
THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW, PLEASE DO NO CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS, IF YOU DO, BE MY GUEST, BUT I WARNED YOU.
Hadley is a student at NYU who is just trying to get to London for her dads wedding to a woman she’s never met. Oliver is studying statistics at Yale and is on time for his flight to London to go home to his living mothers death memorial. (sounds complicated but stay with me)
Hadley misses her flight, leading to a missed connection in which she meets Oliver. Her phone is dead like 80% of the time or dying. She meets him for the first time when he offers her his charger at the airport. This is that moment, when the time slows, and continues to stop for the next 7ish hours of their lives. Completely engulfed in each other.
I’ll skip to the good part, the plane scenes. Oliver’s seat belt is broken in economy, and Hadley is up in Business, the only open seat is the one next to hers. The flight attendant – who also happens to be the narrator, the bus driver, the customs agent, kind of like the whole movies’ guardian angel over these two characters – brings Oliver up to business and seats him next to Hadley. Over the next 6 hours, these two characters fall madly in love with each other.
Now the reason I say this movie is extremely satisfying has to do with a couple of things. One, we already know it’s gonna end with them together. Duh.
Two, upon landing in London, the story twists and turns and these two people who have no way of contacting each other – because Hadley’s phone died before she had the opportunity to save Oliver’s number (facepalm) – find each other against all odds, especially in a city unknown as an American college student (with a dead phone battery).
Three, this movie was surprisingly real. The fact that these two people spent such little amounts of time together and opened up to each other on a level normal people wouldn’t for months of dating is kind of amazing. But not unrealistic because it happens. Makes me wonder if their love story would be categorized under the forced proximity troupe.
And Four, the last and final reason why I find this movie terribly satisfying is the end. The narrator, who is played by The Good Place actress, Jameela Jamil, explains at the end what happens to Hadley and Oliver, not leaving out any doubt that they might break up, or get divorced, and she does this through the telling of statistics about their relationship through their life together. I absolutely felt so whole when this scene played out. My heart swelled with love and happiness for Oliver and Hadley. It is so rare in a movie or a book that we get to see what happens to them in the end. I can’t tell you how much it bothers me that the end of movies like this end with a passionate kiss or them walking together or doing something mundane that insinuates that they will be happy together forever. It just drives me mad.
The same goes with books, but a little less when there is an epilogue. But even then, epilogues only give you a glimpse into the lives of the characters a few months/years later.
There is something so complete in knowing that Hadley and Oliver grow old together, that she dies in his arms, that they have kids, and great success. It’s the ending no one ever dares touch, but delivered the most satisfaction. I think that if it was done more often people may feel it stale after a while. But aren’t we tired or “The End”?
Love at First Sight was just the beginning for Hadley and Oliver. I’d love to say that I wish there would be a second movie, but the ending gives it away that that would probably never happen.
As always, we must rate this movie, there was zero spice which was expected so i’m not even going to bother. But on a star scale, i’d give it 3.75 out of 5.
The only reason I cannot give it a full five or even four stars is due to the fact that I felt as though the movie could have been done a bit better in terms of making Hadley more likable, I don’t think she was very welcoming as a character. It was still good, but she felt underdeveloped and lacking, which is a huge movie ick for me, especially since most of the movie was compiled of her face on the screen. Oliver on the over hand was quite the opposite, I felt like we saw more of who he really was shine through the screen then Hadley.
Nevertheless, this movie still comes in at one of my top favs for new romance on Netflix right now. I’d say it’s worth giving it a watch, especially since it’s a fairly easy view. And most especially since it tells you how it ends.
Ariana Alexander 