Love Story - Romance + Clichés

Rating: 4/10 (1 March 2017)

THIS REVIEW IS ABOUT THE STORY. EVERYTHING ELSE (ART, SECONDARY CHARACTERS, ATMOSPHERE) IS GREAT.
A boy and a girl discover that some days, their lives are swapped, which they only remember as dreams afterwards.
You see the love story coming between those two ? Color me naive, but I didn't.
First, it's one of the most contrived premises you could have for a love story. Second, there's like a million stories you could tell with such a premise, why take the less original ? Of all the funny, awkward, insightful etc. things that could happen to two people who exchange lives, why go for the most clichéd ?
But OK, let's accept that they fall in love with each other. After all, a lot of the emotional impact of the second half of the movie hinges on their being infatuated with each other. But we're never shown that happen ! The most we're shown for Mitsuha (the girl) is that she takes an interest in Taki's (the boy) life. I guess it could count as both reason and show of her growing fondness for him. As limited as it is, at least it's a small hint that something's happening.
We're not so lucky with Taki.
After his date with his female coworker, she guesses that he's recently fallen for another woman. At that point I thought she guessed wrong, because nothing we see supports that idea. But I'm more and more convinced that she's conveying the message of the authors : at that moment, they're flatly informing us that Taki is falling for Mitsuha.
What do they say again in storytelling school ? "Show, don't tell." Well, it's a typical example of telling, not showing.
It's like the movie is trolling us : "Oh, btw, Taki's totally into Mitsuha now ! A lot of stuff happened, but we didn't think it was worth showing, even though ALL we're showing you are those 2 very characters. U mad ?"
Just to be clear, I'm not saying that he has no reason for falling in love. He has plenty ! If you've seen the movie, here's a quick quiz. Taki falls in love with Mitsuha because :
a) he's attracted by her looks
b) he's impressed by her skills
c) he's thankful for her help
d) he remembers their first encounter in the subway
e) they're soulmates
f) any of the other bazillion possible reasons ?
You don't know ? Nobody does ! Because we don't see their love bloom.
As it is, this love story misses its core, its pivotal moment. It's a love story without romance.
Little annoyances :
Memories and messages appear and disappear so as to fit the plot's needs so perfectly that we have left the lands of Plot Convenience to enter the realm of Plot Laziness.
The second part is so clichéd that at any point you can safely guess what happens in the next 15 minutes.
Mitsuha convinces her father at the end in a deeply moving and insightful argument. Well, I guess, because we're TOLD, NOT SHOWN (uuuuugh)