Netflix can throw all of the star-studded blockbusters, nail-biting action thrillers, and big budget fantasies it wants at its subscribers, but the audience keeps on proving that they’re always going to have a soft spot for sickly sweet romances that critics despise, with Love Again the latest case in point.
Despite being pounded into dust by virtue of a 24 percent Rotten Tomatoes approval rating and disappointing at the box office by failing to clear $13 million in ticket sales, the remake of German-language comedy SMS für Dich – adapted from a novel by Sofie Cramer – has ascended the ranks in rapid order to become the streaming service’s number one most-watched movie in the United States, per FlixPatrol.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas stars as a woman reeling from the loss of her fiance, who ends up sending romanticized text messages to his old phone number as a coping mechanism. Wouldn’t you know it, the digits have since been reassigned to the conveniently handsome Sam Heughan, and he’s quickly won over by her words.
Naturally, Celine Dion also factors heavily into the story with the singer making her feature film acting debut as a fictionalized version of herself, where she plays cupid for some reason despite the clear and obvious fact she was never on the same set as either of two leads.
Bugbears aside, Love Again is so saccharine you might be left with nothing but exposed gums after it rots your teeth from the inside out, but that appears to be precisely what Netflix users want.