The History of Love (2016)
Directed by Radu Mihaileanu

Film Review

Nicole Krauss's 2005 best-selling novel The History of Love has all it takes to make a sprawling epic of a tear-jerker and this is exactly what Rumanian born director Radu Mihaileanu delivers in his latest and most overblown film yet.  Mihaileanu's own brand of well-meaning but treacly sentimentality will be familiar to anyone who has sat thorough his previous films Train de vie (1998) and Le Concert (2009), but with his adaptation of Krauss's  novel he excels himself and serves up enough high grade syrup to sink an ocean liner.  With its plethora of characters and interweaving storylines spanning six decades, Krauss's novel would have posed a challenge for any screenwriter and director, but Mihaileanu's decision to turn the whole thing into schmaltz-sodden fairytale for the most sentimentally minded of audiences looks like a sure-fire way to create a monumental flop. 

The only thing that prevents this soggy saga from being totally unwatchable are its authentically played lead performances.  Derek Jacobi can always be relied upon to bring class and substance to any production, no matter how unclassy and insubstantial it might be, but here he pulls out all the stops with a heartrending portrayal of an old man who, although scarred by a lost love, hasn't lost his zest for living and brings cheer wherever he goes.  Gemma Arterton and Sophie Nélisse are no less engaging as the two Almas inhabiting the two separated time frames - 1930s Poland and present day New York.  These two fine young actresses contribute an emotional realism that not even Mihaileanu with his penchant for manic operatic excess can expunge.

On both the cinematographic and musical fronts (to say nothing of a rambling script that leaves no cliché unturned), The History of Love shows a degree of florid excess that makes even Claude Lelouch's more extravagant offerings appear restrained.  Positively revelling in its soppiness, the film gushes hot lachrymose sentiment as readily as Niagara spews cold water, haplessly sweeping away whatever good the film may contain like a burst dam.  The History of Love is by no means a complete disaster - its sincerity is as bountiful as its artistic faux pas - but at well over two hours in length and dripping in schmaltz of the sickliest and sweetest kind it's something of an endurance test to see it all the way through.

Film Synopsis

In the late 1930s, a young Polish man named Léo falls in love with a Jewish girl named Alma.  They are deliriously happy together but then the war comes and they are separated.  Fleeing the Nazis, Alma heads for New York, after her lover has promised to join her one day so that they can marry.  Sixty years later, Léo is now living in Chinatown, a solitary old man who has not lost his zest for life and still clings to his memories of the girl he once loved.  In nearby Brooklyn, a teenage girl - who is coincidentally named Alma - has her own emotional problems.  Sceptical as to whether love really exists, she is unable to commit to a relationship with her boyfriend.  It so happens that her mother is working on a translation of a book entitled The History of Love, which was written by Léo before he left for America.  Through Léo, Alma will discover the meaning of love...