TOO CUTE BY HALF (MODERN LOVE, SEASON TWO)

 

Writing reviews of movies, TV shows, music or literature is a privilege but it also carries with it some responsibility.

It requires honesty and sensitivity with your readers.

It demands a basic recognition that all of us bring our own baggage to a particular work - one person's cup of tea could well be another's cup of detergent.

It also requires humility - a core recognition that you not always right and just because you didn't like something doesn't mean others won't.

Nevertheless you owe it to your readers to be truthful and to those who create art to be fair when passing judgment.

Creating art isn't easy and committing ideas to the page, the screen or the ear takes guts, perseverance and sometimes good fortune. 

Harnessing the talent and personalities of actors, musicians, writers, producers, directors, cinematographers, editors, sound engineers and designers is difficult 

It requires a lot of patience and an ability to juggle and soothe fragile egos.

As a critic, you owe it to all those who create art to be judicious in your choice of language.

You need to be consistent in how you apply critical standards and, above all, you need to be straight with them.

No artist in their right mind wants to hear the work they have produced is a failure but if it doesn't work, you should be honest enough to say so.

Nor do they want to be told their work is flawed, trite or questionable but if you are consistent in the standards you apply and open minded, your opinion will be of value. 

Most of all, no artist wants to be told their work is boring.

Unfortunately, that can happen and it is very much a problem that has haunted John Carney's inconsistent Amazon Prime series 'Modern Love'.

Not all the short films in Carney's anthology series are boring.

In fact, one episode in the second season is very good indeed.

However many of them fail to engage the viewer and you soon find your mind wandering.

Season One of 'Modern Love' saw Carney, his regular collaborator Tom Hall and Sharon Horgan team up in 2019 for eight whimsical half hour stories about the complexities of modern relationships in the Big Apple.

Based on a New York Times column, it was impressively star studded, boasting Anne Hathaway, Dev Patel, Tina Fey, John Slattery, Christine Milioti, Andrew Scott, Andy Garcia, Catherine Keener and Horgan herself among the cast.

However the half hour tales often felt slight, annoyingly self absorbed and definitely lacking in bite - a bit like the bulk of Woody Allen's output over the past 25 years.

Season two finds Carney taking the show out of the confines of New York, with stories set in Dublin, Wicklow and London as well as the Big Apple - although Covid and the restrictions it has brought has undoubtedly forced his hand.

The Dubliner, therefore, teams up with American directors Jesse Peretz, Marta Cunningham, Celine Held and Logan George as well as his fellow countryman, John Crowley of 'Brooklyn' fame.

Carney also draws upon the screenwriting talents of Sarah Heyward, Sarra-Jane Piat-Kelly, Dime Davis, Susan Soon, He Stanton , Andrew Rannell and his brother, Kieran as well Cunningham, Held and George to tell stories of love and loss in gay and straight relationships.

As with Season One, each tale hangs on a different, often quirky romantic concept.

The first episode of this season finds Carney literally on his home turf, with Minnie Driver playing a Co Wicklow based GP who frets with her husband, played by Don Wycherley, over the sale of an open top sports car to Simon Delaney's collector that belonged to her first husband before he passed away with cancer.

The next deals with Zoe Chao's waitress Zoe trying to navigate a relationship with Gbenga Akinnagbe's Jordan in New York that is complicated by her sleeping disorder which means she can only function at night when he likes to sleep.

We're back in Ireland for the next tale which satirises the romcom convention of the "meet cute," with Kit Harington's IT worker Michael encountering Lucy Boynton's university student Paula on the train from Galway to Dublin as they head to the Irish capital before the March 2020 Coronavirus lockdown.

Both agree not to swap numbers, going to their respective bubbles with Jack Reynor's Declan and Miranda Richardson's Jane instead but with the intention of meeting up again weeks later on a train station platform like a modern day Irish version of 'Brief Encounter'.

Dominique Fishback heads up the next story about a stand-up comedian in New York who encounters her childhood crush years later.

The fifth story follows Lulu Wilson's middle school student Katie who is struggling with the realisation that she is gay and is attracted to another student Grace Edwards' Amber.

Garrett Hedlund and Anna Paquin team up for the next short story about two people whose spouses have run away with each other and who develop a relationship after meeting in the reception of a therapist helping them separately overcome the disappointment of their broken marriages.

The next tale centres on fleeting glimpses by Marquis Rodriguez's Ben and Zane Pais's Robbie of each other on a New York street, triggering memories of their relationship before they parted ways.

The final story set in London sees Sophie Okenodo and Tobias Menzies' divorcees rekindling their relationship against all odds, much to their surprise.

As with all anthology series, there is a huge risk that you get stories of varying degrees of quality.

That is certainly true of 'Modern Love'.

With the exception of John Carney's final tale and Celine Held and Logan George's middle school story, most of the stories in 'Modern Love' fall flat and fail to convince.

Carney's first two efforts with Minnie Driver and then Kit Harington and Lucy Boynton have interesting elements in them but they come across as a bit too cute for their own good.

Jesse Peretz's story about lovers struggling to overcomea sleeping disorder, Marta Cunningham's stand up comic story and John Crowley's wronged spouses story simply fail to ignite.

All three short films fall flat because the writers, cast and directors struggle with the half hour straitjacket imposed on them.

Their characters feel underdeveloped and have a tendency to emote in speeches rather than the writers and directors relying on show, not tell to convey emotion.

Such are the constraints, you never really feel like you get to know them in the way you might in an hour long episode.

The same weaknesses are apparent in Carney's first two contributions - although the director's stylistic whimsy papers over some of the cracks, as does Seana Kerslake's amusing turn as a Bean Garda (Irish policewoman).

Even in these episodes, though, the writing is a little too on the nose, as in a sequence in 'Strangers on the Train to Dublin' where the couple are serenaded by another passenger with a corny, improvised song about their instant attraction.

Another quip later in the episode by Jack Reynor's Declan to Kit Harington's Michael about 'Game of Thrones' isn't just forced, it is loudly rammed home.

While Held and George's tale of adolescent confusion and awkwardness is genuinely touching, perhaps the best hope that 'Modern Love' may finally find its feet comes in the final episode.

Working from his brother's script, Carney crafts a charming take about two Londoners reconnecting through their kids after a failed marriage.

It is understated. It is resolutely honest. It isn't gimmicky.

It is also beautifully acted by Sophie Okenodo, Tobias Menzies and Eileen Walsh.

The best wine is saved till last.

It's just a pity we had to neck a lot of bland liquor to get there.

If 'Modern Love' gets a third season, as showrunner Carney needs to either adopt the template of this season's final episode or allow his collaborators to bust through the half hour straitjacket and develop engaging characters and storylines.

'Modern Love' desperately needs to settle on a formula that works and achieve consistency.

The solution may have been found. The question is can Carney deliver it!

('Modern Love' was released on Amazon Prime on August 13, 2021)

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