This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

What if a random text message led to the love of your life? In this romantic comedy, dealing with the loss of her fiancé, Mira Ray sends a series of romantic texts to his old cell phone number…not realizing the number was reassigned to Rob Burns’ new work phone. A journalist, Rob is captivated by the honesty in the beautifully confessional texts. When he’s assigned to write a profile of megastar Celine Dion (playing herself in her first film role), he enlists her help in figuring out how to meet Mira in person…and win her heart.

For thoughts on Love Again, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/_GZkJ0C44NA?t=1078]

Video Quality

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment brings Love Again to Blu-Ray with a gorgeous 1080p video presentation that allows the film to look like its ideal self. The image is crisp with the robust, natural color palette shining off the screen. The film injects some impressive splashes of colors within the clothing, production design and setting which never fails to dazzle. Black levels remain stable with no clear instances of digital noise or crush.

The presentation provides a significant amount of depth on display, especially in the interior shots of the opera. The production design along with the fabrics of clothing provide enjoyable textural details. The flesh tones remain natural with a good amount of detail present in close-ups, especially when it comes to the texture of makeup. This Blu-Ray maintains the high quality you expect from Sony.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a pleasant DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that captures the sonic intentions of the story. Dialogue always comes through flawlessly without being clipped by any competing sounds. This is not a particularly kinetic movie, but the environmental sounds of the city engage the surround speakers in a really effective manner. When the characters are walking through the park, there are some really nice ambient details that flesh out the setting. The film provides a fine soundtrack in which every tune radiates from the speakers in a wonderful, well-balanced way. The low end of the track is especially robust during the handful of new songs from Celine Dion. The audio track is an excellent sounding presentation for this feature in all respects.

Special Features

Finding Love Again: A nine-minute piece in which the cast and creative team discuss adapting this story for an American audience from the original German film, the casting of the ensemble, the chemistry that bolstered the on-screen romance, the presence of Celine Dion, the direction from Jim Strouse, unexpected cameos and more.

Deleted Scenes: There are six unused scenes totaling eight minutes provided here including Mira getting a very good reason to move out of her parent’s house, Rob bantering with his coworkers, cute moments between Mira and Rob and more.

Previews: There are trailers provided for Where The Crawdads Sing, A Man Called Otto, A Journal For Jordan, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance Somebody and No Hard Feelings.

Final Thoughts

Love Again may have been considered a dime a dozen a couple of decades ago, but streaming has devalued the worth of the romance genre over the years until it has almost become extinct in the studio theatrical space. While these movies may not be winning awards, they are necessary for a balanced cinematic ecosystem which injects some heart and humor into our lives. This particular film does the trick, as it has a nice amount of poignant and charming moments with more overt bits of humor which mostly land. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is the more effective side of the romantic pair, but Sam Heughan does a fine job with only a few moments that seem a bit out of place. Celine Dion is the MVP of the narrative, as she is able to tap into her innate weirdness and mine it for delightful comedy. Sony Pictures has provided a Blu-Ray disc that sports a great A/V presentation and a few brief supplements for those who do decide to check it out. If you are a fan of the genre, it will hit the spot well enough. Recommended

Love Again is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.