Love + Hate on DVD (2005)

Neil from Derby , 30/05/2006

Saw this on a plane a few weeks ago. Typical down to earth British film exploring racism in a northern town - not in a particularly deep way. Its well acted with the young actors bringing life and believability to the characters. I wasn't intending on watching it, but once started it turned out to be well worth it.

  8 out of 8 people found this review helpful

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Rehan from London , 21/05/2007

I started watching this film with trepidation, fearing a paint-by-numbers contraction of Shakespeare and fairy-tales, a grim Hovis ad with added plangent orchestral strings, plinkety-plonkety piano, and rock ballads.

And I was right in all respects; but, despite some resistance, I was hooked on the story. There was far too much that was predictable, and some ludicrously contrived coincidences: the interrelationships would have seemed far-fetched in a village of 50, let alone a dreary sprawling Northern town.

But this sort of film, with its heart-warming (if unrealistic) message needs to be made: we need to see so many of films like this that we can move on to subtler varieties.

It's not a great film, but it's not as dreary as its worthiness may make you think. Give it a try (even if the girls, as usual, are gloriously beautiful compared with the utterly gormless boys - but hey, maybe that's realism!).

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

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Sarah Blythe from Sutton Coldfield, England , 06/08/2006

I wasn't planning to see this film as I had never heard of it, but as I work in a cinema I was curious as to what it was about and saw it.

I thought that it was a very good film, with a well portrayed message of how racism affects the community in a small Northern town, and how the few main characters involved manage to go against the odds and begin inter-racial relationships. The main characters are all interesting to watch- one is a bonified chav who enjoys going out late at night and picking up men even though she's barely done her GCSE's, and another is a shy asian girl who is shunned in most social situations..and these girls actually become friends.

My favourite part was the ending (which I won't give away) but with a Snow Patrol song playing over a lovely montage of all the loose ends being tied up to finish the film, it was quite emotional and well done.

The film has been compared to the American 'Crash', but when seeing Crash after this film, I thought Love + Hate was better. Even if you haven't heard of it and you loved 'Crash', give it a go.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful

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Pete Shuttleworth from Hemel Hempstead , 25/01/2007

Love + Hate, set in Blackburn, presents a picture of day-to-day jobsworth existence and a glimpse of how families might actually find a way of coming together (or not) across the northern racial divide. The setting, young actors and dialogue make this a watchable film. The music was excellent and the pace of the film just right. I would have liked more from the parents - as that would have been real (after all the film is about 17 year olds) but I guess its better to celebrate the films strengths rather than the odd shortcoming and this is another BBC Film success I guess.

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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Paul Jay from London, England , 05/06/2007

Well acted, but ultimately totally unrealistic take on mixed-relationships ..

This isn't how racism is in todays society (who cares these days if a white guy goes out with an asian girl?!) and the way young white girls are shown as almost being on the game at such an early age is almost laughable!

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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A customer from East Midlands, UK , 17/02/2007

I couldn't empathise much with the characters in this film as the men were all violent self-centred morons of only slightly different degrees, and the women, I felt sorry for to be in relationships of family, or of love, with men like that.

The love between the sexes seemed to be based entirely on animalistic attraction, as Adam and Naseem had never exchanged more than a few confused and uncommunicative sentences, before they were violently snogging in the waste-ground somewhere.

The conclusion of the film which seemed to be an assumption that they all lived happily ever after, seemed to me, to be entirely unlikely. A Moslem girl, running away with a white man, would, at the very least, be totally disowned by her family, and once the animalistic attraction had worn off, and Naseem found herself with someone she had nothing in common with, would wake up feeling totally alone.

To me, the film did not succeed in being a reality based docu-drama type of film, and yet in trying to be realistic and gritty, it couldn't succeed as a romantic film either.

The acting was good, and the two leading girls were interesting characters in their own different ways, but the male characters, (not the actors themselves obviously), just made me feel ashamed to be of the same species. Perhaps that was the message, but if so, it was not a very up-lifting one.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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