For Love or Money (2019) Review

Not your traditional romance as Mark finds out when his love and relationship with Connie is not how he first thought when he discovers that she is only with him in a plot to steal his impending money.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

*Original title – The Revenger: An Unromantic Comedy

We are reminded instantly as the film starts that this is not going to be a normal romantic comedy and is going to push the boundaries, when the opening scene takes place at a funeral. Mark actually attends the funeral of the man who used to bully him when he was at school. Everyone rather shocked to see him there and Connie the girl he has always been in love with didn’t even remember him. But when Johnny reveals that he is due to become a millionaire, they come up with a plan to work together to then fleece him for half of that money after Connie marries him.

We have to feel utterly sorry for Mark as he is just blinded by his teenage crush saying she was also in love with him. Straight away let’s get married, that fully over the top response which only happens in a film, let’s face it most people now have to wait a year or two to get dates to get married!

At times I felt this film had a little something that reminded me of both ‘Intolerable Cruelty’ and ‘How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days’ but a British version of this as Mark does everything possible to be truly horrible to Connie when her evil plan was revealed. In 2019 though you find this out though by unlocking someone’s phone when they are asleep when you don’t know the passcode! I guess that is very relevant to how people in relationships will act if they do not fully trust the other person.

Some of the treatment really is to push her to the limit and get to her crack. The thing is though as all of this is happening, they do end up having some moments which made me wonder which direction the film was going to head in for the ending. I have to add in that Johnny is one of the worst characters I have seen, made worse by the fact that some men don behave and go on like he does which is pretty terrifying!

I actually thought the friendship between Mark and Tim felt very genuine and the latter got placed in a very uncomfortable situation with Connie’s parents which really did create some laugh out loud moments, which were probably a lot of shock as well as the slapstick style.

Something that made me enjoy this film a lot was seeing Samantha Barks in this type of role having seen her grow her career in many different ways since appearing on ‘I’d Do Anything’ I have since seen her on Broadway in Pretty Woman and she was in smash hit Les Miserables film version. Robert Kazinsky, while yes most people will recognise him from Eastenders, I actually remember him from ‘Dream Team’ a tv series that I used to love! So seeing them both in a film like this is really good, showing what the British film industry is trying to do.

For Love or Money will be available on Digital Download from July 8