Year: 2021

Runtime: 85 Minutes

Director: Col Spector

Writers: Col Spector, Radha Chakraborty

Stars: Al Weaver, Cristina Catalina, Morgan Watkins, Tessa Peake-Jones

By Bianca Garner

Love is a complicated thing, especially in this day and age. There seems to be more and more pressure on people nowadays to climb up the corporate career ladder, then climb the property ladder whilst juggling the stresses of finding true love and settling down to start a family. In your typical Hollywood film, it all looks so simple. In reality, things are never that simple. Col Spector’s latest film, “I’m Not in Love” brilliantly captures the reality that is modern love, and is a really great movie to watch this Valentine’s Day if you’re seeking something that is an anti rom-com. It’s also worth mentioning that this is the final film in a trilogy of films about men and their relationship with women, so if you’re a fan of “I’m Not in Love” then it may be worth seeking out Spector’s other films. 

The film follows Rob (Al Weaver), a thirty something who is currently in a relationship with Marta (Cristina Catalina). Both Rob and Marta expect different things from the relationship. She’s keen to start a family seeing as her biological clock is ticking away, and Rob is unsure whether she’s the right one but is too cowardly to end the relationship. After overhearing a conversation between Marta and her friend about how she’ll be the one leaving him if he doesn’t propose, Rob goes on a desperate mission to find ‘the one’. Naturally, things don’t go well and soon Rob finds himself in some serious hot water. 

“Whilst not everything in the film works, (some scenes and jokes just don’t go anywhere), for the most part “I’m Not in Love” is a very entertaining and enjoyable film. “

Rob is hardly a ‘likable’ character. In a lot of ways, he reminded me of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Tom from “(500) Days of Summer”, this overgrown man-child who is still trying to live like he’s a teenager. He doesn’t seem to appreciate Marta or respect her until it’s too late. You find yourself shouting at the screen in disbelief as Rob makes the most incredibly stupid decisions known to man. Weaver does a great job of making Rob come across as a flawed human, who has issues with his mother and has been deeply impacted from the divorce of his parents as a child. The film opens with a scene of his father leaving him, confessing that the reason is because he’s had enough of Rob’s mother and can’t cope with her mental health needs. The writing by Spector and Chakraborty really helps to make Rob appear like a real character with a past and that helps to explain his behaviour and decision making in the present. 

The supporting cast are also fantastic. The film works because of the interaction between Rob and his male friends. Morgan Watkins and Sunil Patel are great because their dialogue is very typical of that ‘laddish’ culture. But the real praise should go to Cristina Catalina who plays Marta in such a real and authentic way. She manages to convey so much emotion in her subtle facial expressions and the ending scene between her and Weaver left me in tears because it was so relatable. 

Whilst not everything in the film works, (some scenes and jokes just don’t go anywhere), for the most part “I’m Not in Love” is a very entertaining and enjoyable film. It has a rather short runtime, and breezes through it’s plot points in your usual typical ‘rom-com’ manner and it’s not exactly completely original. However, there’s much here to keep the viewer invested and it really is a charming little film which makes Valentine’s Day just that little more bearable.

Gravitas Ventures’ release I’M NOT IN LOVE is now out on digital platforms.