A film can occasionally be too much. In other instances, the movie and its creators know it is way too much. Pretty Little Liars has Sasha Pieterse with a perfect follow-up role to her breakthrough small screen character in The Image of You by Jeff Fisher which just came out this week, if she’s still feeling juicy soapy gossips. Also, let us add “dark” when describing her recent project, where both sisters fall in love with the same guy Parker Young (Randy) whom they met on one of those infamous dating apps.
There are also success stories when it comes to Bumble, Hinge, and others- but there are also horror stories. This endemic is reasonably addressed by The Image of You, however it does not do much to save the overall stupidity that afflicts the third act particularly. Towards the end, the storyline deviates heavily from Adele Parks MBE bestselling novel while some other things were also wrong such as cheesy stylistic choices made by filmmakers that make this movie seem almost like an extended version of a TV episode.
Some of us have friends who will warn them about dangerous relationships before we even realize it ourselves. But what if those red flags came from your twin sibling rather than your best friend? Lately on the digital dating scene is Anna (Pieterse), responsible seeming and quite dignified while Zoe (also Pieterse), her wild twin accompanies her along for the ride. Nick is nice online and appears equally nice offline to Anna. This should be a romantic comedy right? At first glance.
But then—similar to many modern-day films—the genre changes into something more sinister. Why does David (Nestor Carbonell), their father in law look at Zoe funnily anytime she comes visiting him? Zoe searches through Nick’s profile and finds incongruences between his public image—and is that all there is about this central clash? The new Tinder Swindler Nick? As the promotional trailer suggests, however, Nick is the other main protagonist besides the twins and even throughout Zoe’s invasion of his life she keeps him as a sort of duelling protagonist, so that these two start meeting secretly without Anna even having an idea…
Also on board as Nestor’s wife and stepmom to Anna and Zoe is Mira Sorvino. It cannot be forgotten that Sorvino was in Woody Allen ’s Mighty Aphrodite which earned her an Academy Award. Nevertheless, it is regrettable how little use she was put to in The Image of You where she only comes out in a few scenes as Alexia. One would not be surprised if this secondary character had taken on a more major part in Parks’ source-material novel that later became a bestseller worldwide.
Carbonell on his part appears to be simply going through the motions, another season actor who has been flourishing since he played Richard Alpert in ABC’s Emmy-winning broadcast series Lost. He has also been featured in two recent TV shows getting great reviews: Apple TV+’s The Morning Show and FX’s Shogun, which is close to being extended into a second-second season. In The Image of You, David, as a conflicted father, gets to reveal at least one shell-shocking twist that viewers might not see coming as it wasn’t shown during any of the trailers. However, after this point in the film, it lose its footing and take some plot directions that will have you rolling your eyes incredulously for even such an overtly melodramatic movie.
It’s only until then that Nick managed to get laid by either one of the twins in some hot moments of sex scenes. See his colleague Hal (Ben Milliken) walk past him making out inside an elevator with a woman giving Hal a “Oh I didn’t know you were here” look on her face; all while looking directly at him. A few instances like these are meant to be enjoyed best among friends in rowdy company but won’t retain any conversation for cinephiles after the credits end.
The Image of You is now playing at Selected theaters from Republic Pictures and available digitally for purchase.
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