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MOVIE:
Love Sarah
WHERE TO WATCH:
Now showing in cinemas
OUR RATING:
3/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
A young woman wishes to fulfil her mother's dream of opening her own bakery in Notting Hill, London. To do this, she enlists the help of an old friend and her grandma.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
What better way to kick off winter (and enjoy Mother's Day) than with a romantic drama full of delicious confectionaries that will keep you drooling from start to end – this was my thought before watching Love Sarah, and well, it delivered.
Pastry chef Sarah (a cameo from The Great British Bake Off winner Candice Brown) is killed in a cycling accident before opening the bakery of her dreams in Notting Hill. Following the tragedy, the three most important women in her life – her mum, Mimi (Celia Imrie), best friend, Isabella (Shelley Conn) and daughter, Clarissa (Shannon Tarbet) – decide to make a go of the business but not without its challenges.
There is nothing to fault in the performances with supporting roles from Bill Patterson and Rupert Penry-Jones, but it always felt like something was missing. The characters lacked that delicious pie filling you can't wait to dig into when it emerges from the oven – in reality, they feel like less complicated, less interesting versions of actual people. I will admit. Penry-Jones as hunky pastry chef Mathew, who knows his millefeuille from his madeleine, does a perfect job of giving the audience nothing more than what's expected of him – the sweet cherry on top of a heart-warming drama.
Thankfully, the ever-watchable Imrie adds a much-needed pinch of salt to the mouth-watering pastry porn to keep it from being so sickly sweet. The chemistry between the three leading ladies is also something to commend. The process they go through to build bridges over their personal baggage and shared history to join forces for the one person that connects them was executed very well. Still, I was left wanting more from them individually. Mimi, a retired trapeze artist; Isabella, a pastry chef turned businesswoman and Clarissa, a wannabe ballerina who smokes too much weed to make a career out of it – all these unique paths mentioned but not entirely explored enough.
Set aside the unfortunate lack of character arcs, something Eliza Schroeder has nailed in her direction is examining grief and how different people go through the stages of grief in a very realistic way. This is something she told The Digital Fix she hopes audiences will appreciate.
"I wanted to bring people a story that allows them to grieve, allows them to feel the grief, but also enables them to see that there is life after that… I think the three women in the film do that. They put aside their separate lives, their separate paths, and, in the face of uncertainty, come together."
And in dealing with the loss of Sarah comes my favourite themes explored in the film: inclusion, family and multiculturalism. While I am not a resident of London, I have had the privilege of visiting the city, and from what I've experienced, it is beautiful and, much like Schroeder describes, "is multicultural and multicoloured in all aspects". Everything from the aerial shots of England's capital to coining the catchphrase: "Around the world in 80 bakes" had me wishing there was a bakery with the same idea in my city. Especially in today's social climate, I feel it is so important for people to learn more about the different cultures surrounding them and give those from these other cultures a little piece of their home to make them feel like they belong wherever they are.
Love Sarah is like a gooey chocolate brownie – messy, rough around the edges and far from perfect, but who could say no to a warm chocolate brownie on a cold winter's day.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
