A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the movie My Fault: London was being mentioned a lot on the romance movies subreddit. People were excited. Everyone was talking about how it was the bestest most awesome movie ever of all time. Here are some totally normal, not at all unhinged reactions to the film:
I knew I was gonna have to check this one out. Reddit never agrees on anything! So last night, after I finished cleaning up from an ill-fated candle-making adventure (don't ask), I fired up Amazon Prime and settled in for a good time. I was not disappointed.
When eighteen-year-old Noah's (Asha Banks) mother marries a British billionaire, Noah has to leave behind everything she knows in Florida and move to London to live with her new family. Has Noah met her new stepdad before she moves in with him? Unclear. She definitely hasn't met her new stepbrother Nick (Matthew Broome), who goes out of his way to be a condescending jerk when they first meet. (I assumed that there would be some sort of tragic backstory element to why he was such a dick, but it turns out he was just being a dick.) Nick's interest is piqued when he discovers that Noah is, um, you know, a Junior Nascar Champion whose father taught her how to drive before he went to jail.
Nick asks no questions about this. It's hard to ask questions when you're driving around London at 140 kph, so I get it. After that, there are kidnappings and car chases and so much dancing to Charli XCX. This basically becomes a Fast and Furious movie with more making out. And you know what I love? Fast and Furious! AND making out!
I had never seen Banks or Broome before this, but I enjoyed both of their performances. They definitely sold the barely leashed sexual attraction that powers this movie, and their physical scenes were compelling and hot. The movie also looks really good. It's stylish, slick, and fashionable. Matthew Broome is singlehandedly trying to bring back frosted tips, and as a person who lived through that trend the first time around, I'm here for it. Men deserve ill-considered hair dye too!
The chemistry between the leads and appealing production made it easy to brush off some of the more implausible elements. Early on, we're told that Nick sold an app at 17, so he's obviously smart AND rich. Noah, who lived in a Florida beach town, has a wardrobe full of leather jackets and sweaters perfect for London. At no point do their respective parents think, "hey, maybe we shouldn't put our hot, horny teenage children in close proximity to each other and encourage them to hang out all the time." For me, these sort of plot contrivances are part of the fun. It's a dumb sexy movie! Have fun!
That said, at almost two hours, this is longer than I like for a romance movie. The surprise reveal at the end stretched even my credulity, and I could have done without the stupidest coppers in olde Londontown. But overall, this was a fun time.
If your grandma is cool with sex scenes, watch it together and reminisce about the dumb things you thought were hot when you were 18. I'll start! I was sure that it would be really hot to kiss a guy with a lip ring. Then when I was 22, I fulfilled that fantasy and figured out it was just weird to have a piece of metal rubbing against my face.
Since you’ve already got one completely unhinged romance movie on the agenda, why stop there? If your idea of a good time is a fictional European kingdom, a prince who desperately needs a haircut, a heroine who apparently possesses every qualification required for royalty, and a plot that exists primarily to deliver maximum Netflix princess nonsense, then you need to meet The Royal Treatment. It’s one of my favorite entries in the Netflix Princess Cinematic Universe—and absolutely ridiculous in exactly the way I want my rom-coms to be. Read my review of The Royal Treatment!