Love Life review

This Dutch drama doesn't quite know whether to be bleak or bright

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Isn’t it a drag when your cancer-ridden wife won’t stop wilting so you can have some fun?

That’s the ‘dilemma’ faced by young playboy Stijn (Barry Atsma) whose wife Carmen (Carice Van Houten) has the terminal illness.

Reinout oerlemans directs this romantic drama like the lovechild of Richard Curtis and Lars Von Trier.

One minute it’s bright, breezy and exotic, the next bleak, oppressive and hospital-bound.

A moving turn from Van Houten almost excuses the clash of tone, but Stijn is such an unforgivable character that the journey never feels worthwhile.

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