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By Billie Melissa
Contributing Entertainment Writer
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Following her turn in Bridgerton as Kate Sharma, Simone Ashley has been at the top of every wish list for rom-com fans looking for their next "frazzled English woman" to embody the spirit of the greats who came before her, like Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones or Kate Winslet in The Holiday.
She now gets her chance to shine in Prarthana Mohan's Picture This, a re-imagining of Shawn Seet's Prime Video film from last year, Five Blind Dates. Seet's film starred Shuang Hu as Lia, a woman who gets told by a fortune teller that her soulmate is right around the corner in the following five dates she goes on.
The premise is the same for Picture This. Simone Ashley plays Pia, a photographer whose dream of running a studio in London has come true – except it's not going so great, and business is at a lull. On top of this, her mother and sister are fussing about her future relationship status, which leads to them plotting some dates for her.
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Picture This has all the tropes. A wedding. Fake dating. Second chance romance. If you're a rom-com connoisseur, you will not be disappointed by the number of homages to the genre stuffed inside this 99-minute romp about a cynic who realizes she's been repressing the urge inside her to be seen, understood, and valued for who she is and not who society (or her family) wants her to be.
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The film opens with a vibrant and creatively gifted Ashley absorbed in her work. We see her eyes alight with passion as she soaks in every second of doing what she loves in the city she'd always dreamed of living in. She's approaching 30 (of course) and couldn't be happier that – on the surface – everything looks like it's swimming along perfectly. But, we swiftly learn through her best friend Jay (Luke Fetherston) that an eviction notice is around the corner if they can't magic up some money to pay the rent.
"Time is running out," Pia's mother, Laxmi, warns her every five minutes. Not just on her dream but also on her chance for love because 30 is just around the corner, and we all know a woman's life ends when she hits 30. It's done in jest, making fun of the films that came before it that have exhibited genuine concern for a woman's future past her third decade on this planet. Mohan is interested in paying tribute to the genre as much as she is critiquing it, which is a welcome change.
However, Picture This really begins when Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) steps into the frame. It takes him almost a third of the run-time to appear for the first time, but when he does, we know we've arrived at what we've all come to see: the romance. The chemistry between Fiennes Tiffin and Ashley is palpable, and they elevate each others' performances tenfold. It is when they are both on the screen that the rom outweighs the com, and you get to soak in that movie magic that makes the genre so attractive.
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But then he disappears again, and we only really get to see him a handful more times because the central love story is really between Pia and her work, or Pia and her family, or Pia and anything or anyone other than Charlie.
It's nice to see a woman's work treated seriously on screen. So often, there's a silliness or frivolity associated with it. However, there's a pivotal moment in Picture This where Pia speaks so earnestly about what it is she loves about being a photographer, and suddenly we realize that the film we're watching actually has a narrative much more interesting lingering beneath the surface.
Not only is the connection between Pia and her work far more interesting than whatever romance narrative she finds herself tangled in but so is the relationship between her and her mother and sister. All of this to say, a far more interesting film desperately wants to jump out of Picture This, and it could've thrived if this wasn't a rom-com.
But it is a rom-com, and all of this complex struggle about letting people in, personal growth, and learning to accept what you cannot control still co-exists comfortably alongside the through line of Pia giving love another chance after being heartbroken by Charlie in high school.
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The romance between them doesn't hit so hard at the climax because we don't get enough screen time between the two of them to fully invest in what they're offering us, but Ashley and Fiennes Tiffin do an excellent job with the limited time they do share on screen.
Mohan's done a wonderful job with the screenplay from Nikita Lalwani, who threads comedy through the film so expertly that it earns laugh-out-loud moments – a feat not so easy when something will largely be watched solo from your living room. There's a brilliant scene between Simone Ashley as Pia and Nikesh Patel as Akshay that you'll almost certainly chuckle to yourself even with no one to share the laugh with.
Picture This makes the most out of what it is. There are beautiful relationships built between the cast that make it an enjoyable and light watch, even if there's more that could've been done to elevate it just that little bit higher.
Where Can I Watch Picture This in the US?
Picture This is now available to stream on Prime Video.
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