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LOVE TYPE D – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

Susan Wloszczyna , , , ,
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The British romantic comedy Love Type D certainly proposes an intriguing if far-fetched premise – that certain people carry an unlucky-in-love gene that causes them to endure a lifetime of serial dumpings by those people that they are attracted to. We find this out when we meet 20-something cubicle worker Frankie Browne (Maeve Dermody), whose current beau Thomas (Oliver Farnsworth) sends his nearly 12-year-old precocious school–boy half-brother Wilbur (Rory Stroud, a delight) to deliver the bad news that she has been dumped. Even worse, Thomas is now dating a beautiful famous female astronaut.

That is when science prodigy Wilbur, whose glasses are forever askew, suggests that Frankie might carry a gene that causes her companions to eventually break off their relationship. She scans the internet to seek more info and finds online ads touting a genetic company that sells a test to see if you have the so-called dumpee gene or if you are a dumper. Dr. Elsa Blomgren (Tovah Feldshuh) promotes her product and notes such signs of the gene, such as having childhood pets run away or playing Scrabble by yourself. Soon, Frankie recruits her co-workers to take a sort of pregnancy-type test and several prove positive. She determines that one must dump their dumpers to make the gene benign.

We should applaud first-time writer-director Sasha Collington for coming up with a truly unique fantasy premise. However, Dermody spends much of the film moping about when such a farcical premise craves energy and snappy dialogue. Plus Stroud is allowed to steal every scene he appears in. By the time that a psychic and elephant pheromones enters the picture, the script starts to desperately droop.

To be honest, the only time I chuckled out loud was when Frankie shows a new male intern how to use the copy machine. When he asks if the sheets of paper should be printed on back and front or just one side, Frankie tells him that her boss is a climate-change denier, so one should be perfectly fine.

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Susan Wloszczyna

In her nearly 30 years at USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna interviewed everyone from Vincent Price and Shirley Temple to Julia Roberts and Will Smith. Her coverage specialties include animation, musicals, comedies and any film starring Hayley Mills, Sandy Dennis or hobbits. Her crowning career achievements so far, besides having Terence Stamp place his bare feet in her lap during an interview for The Limey, is convincing the paper to send her to New Zealand twice for set visits, once for The Return of the King and the other for The Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong, and getting to be a zombie extra and interview George Romero in makeup on the set for Land of the Dead. Though not impressive enough for Pulitzer consideration, she also can be blamed for coining the moniker "Frat Pack," often used to describe the comedy clique that includes Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell. Her positions have included Life section copy desk chief for four years and a film reviewer for 12 years. She is currently a contributor for the online awards site Gold Derby and is an Oscar expert for RogerEbert.com. Previously, she has been a freelance film reporter and critic, contributing regularly to RogerEbert.com, MPAA’s The Credits, the Washington Post, AARP The Magazine online and Indiewire as well as being a book reviewer for The Buffalo News. She previously worked as a feature editor at the Niagara Gazette in Niagara Falls, N.Y. A Buffalo native, she earned her bachelor's degree in English at Canisius College and a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University.