| Love Is in the Air is an Australian version of a Hallmark romance. Dana (Delta Goodrem) is a career woman, a pilot of a small family seaplane delivery business, with no time for dating. William (Joshua Sasse) is a finance guy from a UK investment firm planning to sell off Fullerton Airways forcing them to shutdown. There are a few key ingredients from successful romances that are missing here, mainly genuine characters and a connection from shared values and beliefs. | | 2023
Directed by: Adrian Powers
Screenplay by: Katharine E. McPhee and Adrian Powers & Caera Bradshaw
Starring: Delta Goodrem, Joshua Sasse
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Dana is the epitome of a big city girl who focuses only on work, except she’s already in a small town and chooses to only focus on work, so there’s no place for her character to grow. William is much too similar to Dana; he’s a big city (London) guy who focuses only on work, and he’s supposed to arrive in small town Australia to discover that there’s more to life than work. But he can’t discover that because Dana only cares about work. What William is actually meant to discover is that there’s more to life than profits. I feel it’s a silly difference which really limits either character actually expanding their world views and finding something genuine to fall in love over. The only reason William and Dana fall in love is because he’s the only man that she is forced to spend time with. That’s not romantic, that’s not genuine, that’s the mark of a very poorly written screenplay that doesn’t know how to portray love.
I typically love Australian-set movies. A country I have never been to but seemingly has an endless canopy of gorgeous beaches. Love Is In the Air is filmed in Australia, but most of the scenes are filled with what looks like cheap CGI. The impossibly blue sky and ocean is literally impossible and doesn’t look real because it isn’t real. The setting for this movie and a plot revolving around a seaplane is the only thing that elevates it into a more interesting movie, but using CGI for most of it does not help at all.The real photography comes at the end, if you make it that far.
The only thing we’re left with is the business side. It’s unclear why this small family-run Australian seaplane business was invested in by a UK equity firm in the first place. Especially since they own one plane that has been in the family for years. They don’t explain, we just have to accept it. OK, moving on. If the investment firm wants to sell off because they’re unprofitable, then why not find other sources of cash inflow – for instance grants? This entire company operates by delivering mail to remote locations of Australia apparently accessible only by seaplane. That’s a valuable service that the Australian government would probably want to directly invest in, and if not at bare minimum would have grants available to help subsidize. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that these characters are too stupid to look into that.
Love Is in the Air is not the lovely Australian romance that it should be. It’s filled with stupid one-dimensional characters, cheap CGI and zero romance.
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