Love at First Sight: Nothing Like This Ever Happened to Me on a Plane

Once, on a plane from North Carolina to Colorado, I overheard two people behind me having a getting-to-know you conversation. Since they were both loud and modern flying means you're practically sitting on top of each other, I heard them talk about their hometowns, their families, their spouses, their shared interests. I was tuning them out, but my ears pricked up when they started talking about how they were unsatisfied in their marriages and they felt a connection to each other.

It quickly became obvious that I was not the only one listening in on this conversation, as I looked around at my fellow passengers and saw a lot of raised eyebrows and discreet peeks. Since we were at cruising altitude, people started getting up from their seats so they could "use the bathroom" or "get something from their bag" while staring at the loud people telling all of us about their sex lives.

Then they started making out. Did you know that people can kiss loudly?

At this point, ten rows on either side of this couple are freaking out. People are blatantly filming the couple. People are paying for wi-fi so they can live tweet what they are seeing. People are shouting jokes and encouragement and admonishment. The poor guy in the window seat next to them is staring at the wall, disassociating. Finally, the stewardesses come and break it up. They lectured the couple about inappropriate behavior and had the captain put on the seatbelt sign, which made everyone return to their seats like obedient kindergartners. As we deboarded, everyone stared at the couple. Though they looked ashamed, they left hand in hand.

And that's the closest I've ever come to romance on a plane.

Love at First Sight, the movie I watched this month, is significantly more romantic than that story. Perpetually late Hadley Sullivan (Haley Lu Richardson) misses her flight to London, where her father is about to marry a woman she's never met. While she's waiting for the next plane, she meets perpetually early Oliver Jones (Ben Hardy) who is on the same plane. They bond over their hatred of mayonnaise and love of British literature. After a little interference from a probability-spouting narrator (Jameela Jamil), they end up sitting next to each other on the flight, which gives them seven hours to laugh at each other's jokes and exchange yearning looks. They have a surprisingly sexy moment as they stand outside the decidedly unsexy airplane bathroom. After the plane lands, they get separated at customs. Can they reconnect when the world wants to pull them apart?

First things first: I loved this movie. It's stylish and charming, with great music and winsome leads. I have a well-documented weakness for soulful British boys, and I love a hint of whimsy, so this was right up my alley despite one tremendous flaw: it should have been called Love at First Flight. It was right there! Anyway, I was so busy being charmed by this movie that I didn't look out for the tremendous emotional gut punch that came about halfway through the movie. I full-on ugly-cried in my living room. It turns out that when you hire two legendary theater actors (Dexter Fletcher and Sally Phillips) to deliver monologues about love and loss, you get a scene that blows the roof right off the movie.

Fuck, I just rewatched that scene and cried again!

I'm adding this to my list of rom-coms that I would recommend to anyone. The performances are great, the movie looks colorful and textured, the music is cool, and the leads have great chemistry. I ended up rewatching the whole thing again while I wrote this review. It's based on a book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, which I have added to my tbr. I hope you like it as much as I did!

What's the weirdest thing to ever happen to you on a plane? Let me know!