Right from a secret assassin’s heart to a pragmatic app developer’s mind, love creeps in the most unlikely of places, bringing forth a torrent of feelings out of the dead land. Here’s a list of six English movies, available on OTT platforms, that take a look at love that comes in many forms and situations.
Role Play
Kaley Cuoco of The Big Bang Theory fame leads a double life in this action comedy. Otherwise a loving homemaker, Cuoco’s Emma Brackett moonlights as a secret assassin wanted for murders across several continents. Her “business” often keeps her away from her family leading to an emotional and physical void in her marriage.
When Emma and her husband Dave Brackett (David Oyelowo) decide to spice things up by meeting at a hotel as strangers, a collision between Emma’s secret life and her personal relationships throws them both into turmoil. Will Emma ever be able to live a normal life and rework her marriage? Watch the Thomas Vincent directorial on Amazon Prime Video.
After Everything
In the sequel to Castille Landon’s After Ever Happy (2022), Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin reprise their roles as Tessa Young and Hardin Scott. After Everything begins with Hardin yearning for Tessa who left him after discovering his ‘After’ manuscript where he wrote about their relationship. With mounting pressure from his publisher to write a sequel, Hardin battles writer’s block and memories of Tessa with excessive drinking. Encouraged by his family, he gets together with Natalie in Lisbon with whom he had once had a fling. This helps him to finish his ‘Before’ manuscript. Having surprised Natalie with a coastal house, Hardin flies back to America. At his half-brother Landon’s wedding, Hardin runs into Tessa for the first time in two years. The film ends with the two lovers finding their way back to each other. After Everything is streaming on Netflix.
Love at First Sight
Twenty-year-old Hadley Sullivan (Haley Lu Richardson) meets 22-year-old British Yale University student Oliver Jones (Ben Hardy) shortly after missing her flight to London and the sparks begin to fly almost instantly.
While Hadley is on her way to attend her father’s second marriage, Oliver is bound for his mother’s memorial service. The two spend the next six hours on a flight, bonding and falling in love. After landing, Oliver gives Hadley his number but her phone is damaged before she can save it. Hadley takes a chance to look for him in a foreign land, while Oliver, the stats scholar, realises that not everything can be summed up in numbers. Love at First Sight is streaming on Netflix.
The Other Zoey
Dismissive of romantic love, Zoey Miller (Josephine Langford), a computer major junior at university, develops an app to match people on the basis of algorithms. Not a fan of the university’s soccer star Zach MacLaren (Drew Starkey), Zoey banters with him insultingly at a bookstore. Zack meets with an accident soon after leaving the bookstore and loses his memory. He mistakes Zoey, who watched him collide with the car, for his girlfriend, who has the same name. The doctors advise Zoey to go with it to help Zach recover.
Zoey is forced to spend time with Zach’s parents and starts to bond with Zach’s cousin Miles Maclaren (Archie Renaux) only to discover that he is in a polyamorous relationship. Disappointed, she spends a day with Zach, forming a genuine connection as he heals. But there is a backlash when her identity is revealed, leading to strained relationships with her friends. Zoey decides to reclaim her image by helping to promote a campus event by launching its website. Though hesitant at first, Zoey attends the festivity and confesses her feelings for Zach.
Directed by Sara Zandieh, The Other Zoey is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Lift
Seeking a little adventure? Join Cyrus (Kevin Hart) and his gang of international robbers as they undertake two simultaneous thefts at an art auction in Venice. The thrill doubles when intercom agent Abby Gladwell (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who has been tracking the gang, is instructed by her superior, Commander Huxley (Sam Worthington), to collaborate with them on a special mission.
Abby’s former relationship with Cyrus poses an obstacle, eventually giving way to delightful moments of humour. Cyrus’s lingering feelings for Abby find expression as the two team up to prevent billionaire Lars Jorgenson (Jean Reno) from manipulating the stock market. Watch the F. Gary Gary directorial on Netflix.
Players
Helmed by Pitch Perfect 3’s Trish Sie, this romcom starring Gina Rodriguez and Tom Ellis delves into a New York sports writer’s emotional conundrum. Mack (Rodriguez) has spent years devising successful hook-up plays with her friends. But when she falls head over heels for one of her targets (Ellis), a series of hilarious incidents ensues that teach her to play for keeps not flings.
Players boasts an ensemble cast featuring Kissing Booth actor Joel Courtney, Happy Endings star Damon Wayans Jr. and YouTuber Liza Koshy. The romantic comedy is slated to premiere on Netflix on Valentine’s Day.
