In “Love by Chance”, the effervescent Brenda Song plays, but she has the audacity to be less than she deserves. It’s very sad, to put it mildly. Directed by Peter Sullivan from a script by Robert Dean Klein, the film “Accidental Love” is a far-fetched story with bad chemistry. That’s enough to derail any romantic comedy, but the original Freevee movie is even worse because it’s aesthetically uncomfortable, which is hardly unexpected for the director of Secret Obsession.
“Love by Chance” is a “romantic comedy” that tells the story of two advertising managers leading a fierce struggle to reach the top at work. Alexa (Song) is a hardworking, capable woman who has been doing this for almost a decade, and Jason (Aaron O’Connell) is an eloquent, cheeky newcomer. Neither of them knows that the heat between them is happening not only because of their competitive nature. Rather, it is due to their intense chemistry. Alex and Jason are accidentally dumped by their partners, and Alexa accidentally sends Jason a “broken heart” text, which causes them to get in touch. This is due to an absolutely incredible confusion with work phones and assigned numbers. The two connect by converting speech into text, and their relationship changes even if they don’t know who is at the other end of the text. In the real world, they struggle fiercely to succeed in their work.
Aaron O’Connell accidentally fell in love
To say that “Love by accident” is a massive misfire would be an understatement. The film doesn’t explain the reality of how smartphones work these days. The script looks like it was dusted off after it had been on the shelf for 30 years. The film is a kind of fake romantic comedy, which is born only out of a desire to reproduce a hit. In this case, Love Accidentally is a poorly made copy of You’ve Got Mail. Leaving aside the huge impracticality of how frankly mobile phones work, “Love by Chance” cannot be romantic or comedic.
Brenda Song is the epitome of what it means to deserve the best from Hollywood. The Disney starlet won the hearts of viewers with her charming performance as London Tipton in the suite “The Life of Zack and Cody” and several original Disney Channel films, such as Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. She has been working steadily for almost 20 years, but has not achieved the same success as her white colleagues. In 2019, Song stated that she was denied the opportunity to read for Rachel in Insanely Rich Asians, which is relevant here because this romantic comedy could benefit from her innate magnetism and the potential of a queen of romantic comedies. “Love by Chance”, which was produced by the Song, is not. She plays a poorly dressed, underdeveloped, soft shell of the main character of a romantic comedy. Her talent should surpass those who turn on Hallmark and Lifetime novels almost every week. However, in the film, the actress is deprived of everything that makes her glow. It’s amazing and disappointing when her gifts are squandered in this way.
Brenda Song accidentally fell in love
Tasteless office furniture and houses without decor (which Nancy Meyer most likely would not approve of) are just offensively boring. These aspects of the film are of paramount importance, but in most cases they are not enough to make the film a failure. Nevertheless, the poor quality of the production and style of the scenery and actors of Love Accidentally testifies to the laziness of the story and its overall execution. It’s pretty sad. In a series of office novels featuring the image of an enemy and a lover, such as “The Hate Game” starring Lucy Hale, “Love Accidentally” loses in every way. The most striking mistake is that the central couple does not express their hidden desire or attraction to each other. Even their voice-to-text conversion lacks chemistry. It’s maddening, because the main goal of any romantic comedy is to make the audience empathize with the main couple based on their chemistry and the random tricks that unite them. Love Accidentally seems to have forgotten about it.
