Mr. Jeremy Malcolm (Sope Dirisu) is not against taking a bride, so long as she meets the strenuous requisites contained in the eponymous checklist. Unable to make the cut after one date, Julia (Zawe Ashton) is left with no recourse to fall back on but one: that favored revenge trope of positioning her friend Selina (Freida Pinto) as Malcolm’s object of desire, one that will leave him heartbroken. Overlit, underdeveloped, and set during the increasingly popular Regency Era (Bright Star, Becoming Jane, Belle) one wishes the filmmakers had placed as much faith in unconventionality as they do their “united colors of Benetton” casting. The target, clearly something in the Jane Austen/Shakespeare vein, misses the mark, falling miles short of 10 Things I Hate About You and in the realm of John Tucker Must Die. First-time director Emma Holly Jones might have done better with a feature length examination of Eddie’s qualifying “football quiz” in Diner than this tepid adaptation of novelist Suzanne Allain’s period romcom. The cast is attractive, but one gets the feeling they were having too much fun playing dress up to bother with nuance. (2022) — Scott Marks
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