Eager to make a Brit-flick romantic comedy, director David Kane carves out this disposable product called This Year's Love which is essentially about six different loser-characters living in London and swapping partners on and off for two years. There is no more depth to it that that, aside from the odd, half-hearted attempt to add more background to the characters. This is only successful in one of them, namely Kathy Burke's character of a self-deemed "fat bird" with no self-esteem and it is mostly because she plays her with effortless conviction that she is enjoyable to watch. This character is also one of the few sources for comedy in This Year's Love. I know the rest of the film tries to be funny but it never quite gets there; it barely manages smirkworthy.Aside from Burke, some other decent parts are the way these six characters meet. It never feels forced. You'd think that managing six intertwining relationships would be difficult to pull off, but this feels very natural in the film -- the characters meet in the most ordinary, normal and logical ways like in a pub, at an airport, at a supermarket or at an auction. After all, they all live in the same vicinity -- Camden. This Year's Love isn't bad exactly, but since it manages neither funny nor romantic I'd say this is a pretty fatal failure of a romantic comedy.4/10

found this film by mistake and wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised, a real gem of a movie. Cathy Burke singing was a surprise and she wasn't that bad, The characters were realistic and I know the area well so can attest to this, happy endings were not mandatory in this film which makes it more poignant. Could imagine another film with these characters being made five years down the line and still holding our interest. Dougray Scott was surprisingly attractive even with greasy hair, he showed a good understanding of the character. All in all the actors in this film showed why British film-making is up there with the best.

Compared to its subsequent b****rd offspring ("Elephant Juice" and "Born Romantic") this is a faultless masterpiece. Is it really enough to get a few admittedly very good actors together, get them to do a few mildly funny, mildly touching scenes and then edit it all together? Perhaps it would be if this film didn't have ideas above its station. I'm all for having characters who are f*cked-up and mentally disturbed, but how dare the makers of "This Year's Love" introduce just such a character (Liam, played by Ian Hart) and have him involved with all the main female characters in the movie and then just remove him from the story when they can no longer think of what to do with him? This is insulting and offensive. The balanced, "normal" people are all okay, so that's all that matters. Disgraceful. Liam is the only one of the characters who can't cope with all this bed-hopping, being dumped, falling in and out of love and all the rest of it. Yes, all his girlfriends in this film deserve better, but what about him? Who cares? Clearly not the makers of this half-hearted film.There are pleasures to be had - Dougray Scott is excellent as the serial womaniser and complete git. His scene with Sophie towards the end ("Yes - meeeee!") is great. And Sophie has a superb monologue directed at the hapless Liam ("coming faster than a speeding bullet") which ends with her son waving "Bye Bye" to him. A fine scene. Henshall and McCormack are also good as ever. Though I wish someone would explain to London film-makers that people who work on supermarket tills rarely if ever get taxis from Camden to Heathrow. It would have been much funnier to show her getting on the tube and being endlessly frustrated at delays, crowds, breakdowns, broken escalators. See the end of Kingsley Amis's "Lucky Jim" for details of how this sort of scene can be done. Kathy Burke is, of course, superb. For some inexplicable reason, however, the band she plays in is fronted by the ever-loathsome David Gray. The scene where she takes centre stage is hilarious as Mister Gray fights to hog the limelight, waving his head about and thrashing his acoustic for all it's worth - thankfully the film-makers seem quite aware of how vile he is, and track in to the lovely kathy, forcing him out of the frame. Well done.There are worse ways to spend two hours of your life (actually going to Camden, for example) but this film could have been so much better. Then again, on the evidence of the follow-up, "Born Romantic", they could also do a whole lot worse.

It could be said that "This Year's Love" is for Britain what "Friends" is for the USA. Three guys, three girls, swapping relationships and having a laugh along the way. What makes "This Year's Love" different is that the characters are flawed in a way that prevents them from finding true happiness.Though arguably an acquired taste, this is a BRILLIANT film. The acting is superb, the characters so very different. There are many moments of humour, though it is not laugh-out-loud, and plenty of sadness, some of it almost disturbing.So to the story. Set in London's Camden Town, we follow the Glaswegian couple Danny (Douglas Henshall) and the gorgeous Hannah (Catherine McCormack) on their wedding day. Danny learns than Hannah has been sleeping with his best mate and storms out.Hannah gets drunk and falls into the arms of Cameron, (another Scot) a struggling artist with a penchant for preying on vulnerable women. We then meet Cameron's flatmate Liam (Ian Hart) a naive, obsessive Liverpudlian who scrapes a living selling collectable comics. He "seduces" Sophie (Jennifer Ehle) a high-society drop out with child. Danny, meanwhile meets self-confessed "fat bird" Mary (Kathy Burke), but all three relationships deteriorate quickly.I won't say much more - you'll have to see the film for yourself. But be warned, there is no "Hollywood" ending, though some people find happiness. This film has lived in the Shadow of "Brit-hits" such as "Four Weddings", "Notting Hill" and "Lock Stock..". Do yourself a favour and see this film, it is far superior. 10/10