Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Formulaic opposites-attract romance; mild language, peril.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Love Is in the Air
What's the Story?
Brash Dana (Delta Goodrem) is her family's small local airline's sole pilot in LOVE IS IN THE AIR. Their only plane services a remote area of Australia, including tours of the local landscape, but more importantly, they fly medical supplies, mail, and food to isolated residents of nearby islands. William (Joshua Sasse) is the son of a British private equity outfit CEO. The firm seems to own the airline half a world away. Shy and nervous William, who looks like he's 40, is a junior executive and still trying to impress his dad. He doesn't seem cut out for the hard-nosed financial world but, in an effort to make his dad proud, finds Dana's company among the firm's holdings and argues his dad should close the unprofitable enterprise. The unfeeling dad sends William to Australia to do just that. Dana immediately hates William and he, polite and conflicted, doesn't know what to make of the rude, steamrolling woman. In no time, as he flies on local rescue missions with her, they grow fond of each other. William sees the airline's value and begs his father not to sell it off for parts. But his dad says no and William dejectedly flies back to London. Can the romance and airline be saved?
Is It Any Good?
Love is in the Air is about as commonplace and stale as a movie gets while still being watchable. Watchability is owing directly to Joshua Sasse as William, whose warm, bemused eyes and intelligent delivery of gag reflex-inspiring dialogue far surpass the simple-mindedness of the plot and Dana's cookie-cutter character. It's not Delta Goodrem's fault that she has to say such lines as "If you want something done you gotta do it yourself," and "That's it! I have an idea!"
But if the Outback, down-to-earth vibe is what she means to convey, it's completely undermined by the choice for her to always be groomed like a Manhattan fashion executive with full makeup and false eyelashes and never a hair out of place from early in the morning to late at night. She looks less like a rural, rough-and-tumble airline pilot and more like a participant in the Real Housewives of somewhere or other. Nothing wrong with looking nice at work, but she just doesn't feel authentic somehow.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about formulaic movies and whether they can be enjoyable in spite of some parts that are dull, repetitive, or unsurprising. How does this movie fit into that pattern?
Do you think romantic movies need to always make sense, or does our need for happy romances make us forgive plot weaknesses?
How successful is the movie in putting women in somewhat untraditional roles, with a woman pilot and woman aircraft mechanic? Does it seemed forced or natural?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : September 28, 2023
- Cast : Delta Goodrem , Joshua Sasse , Steph Tisdell
- Director : Adrian Powers
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Writer(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Romance
- Run time : 88 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : October 6, 2023
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