Love and Other Catastrophes falls into the category of 'ensemble rom-com' since it looks at the love lives of five students over the course of a day at Melbourne University.
Mia (Frances O'Connor) breaks up with her girlfriend Danni (Radha Mitchell) out of boredom and distraction with her problems at University, but will they get back together? Her room-mate Alice (Alice Garner) moans about not meeting the right man, but have her criteria - that he must be left-handed, like the same films as her, and be honest - set the bar too high? She has her eye on fellow student Ari (Matthew Dyktinski) but he's feeling too detached by his obsession with philosophy and depressed about his job as a gigolo to think about a girlfriend, so do they have a chance? Lastly Ari's friend Michael (Matt Day) is a serious med student who is desperate to move from his chaotic share house, and worried about his lack of a girlfriend, but will the spare room available at Mia and Alice's house change his luck?
This hip, joyful, smart, low-budget rom-com captured the hearts of both the young and the young at heart in the mid-90s and spawned a spate of other low-budget inner-city rom-coms in the following years. Frances O'Connor is wonderful as the mercurial, self-centred but ultimately loving Mia, and she is given great support by the other four actors.
This is a reminder of our University years, or the Uni years we wished we had had. It's a joyful romp, capturing the heady confusing life of young people at Uni, with likeable characters making poor choices, but things working out eventually. The writing is smart and nimble, the dialogue quick and believable, the style hand-held and immediate and the acting top notch.
Mia (Frances O'Connor) breaks up with her girlfriend Danni (Radha Mitchell) out of boredom and distraction with her problems at University, but will they get back together? Her room-mate Alice (Alice Garner) moans about not meeting the right man, but have her criteria - that he must be left-handed, like the same films as her, and be honest - set the bar too high? She has her eye on fellow student Ari (Matthew Dyktinski) but he's feeling too detached by his obsession with philosophy and depressed about his job as a gigolo to think about a girlfriend, so do they have a chance? Lastly Ari's friend Michael (Matt Day) is a serious med student who is desperate to move from his chaotic share house, and worried about his lack of a girlfriend, but will the spare room available at Mia and Alice's house change his luck?
This hip, joyful, smart, low-budget rom-com captured the hearts of both the young and the young at heart in the mid-90s and spawned a spate of other low-budget inner-city rom-coms in the following years. Frances O'Connor is wonderful as the mercurial, self-centred but ultimately loving Mia, and she is given great support by the other four actors.
This is a reminder of our University years, or the Uni years we wished we had had. It's a joyful romp, capturing the heady confusing life of young people at Uni, with likeable characters making poor choices, but things working out eventually. The writing is smart and nimble, the dialogue quick and believable, the style hand-held and immediate and the acting top notch.