'Love at First Sight' review: Aggressively quirky airplane romance experiences turbulence

A couple meets cute and then keeps circling each other in "Love at First Sight," a generic if moderately charming romantic comedy that wants to be light and airy but where the seams are constantly showing.

Based on Jennifer E. Smith's 2012 YA novel "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight," the movie is the kind of aggressively quirky tale where one's dislike of mayonnaise becomes a defining character trait. Characters are always tossing out random statistics ("approximately 17.6% of people will walk away from the love of their life" — and just how is that one measured, exactly?) to fill in the gaps for what becomes a glaring lack of chemistry between the two leads.

Haley Lu Richardson, a delightfully charming actress who broke out in the second season of "The White Lotus," plays Hadley, a 20-year-old flying to London for the wedding of her father (Rob Delaney). Ben Hardy ("X-Men: Apocalypse") is Oliver, who is heading home to London — also for a wedding, or so he says — and who winds up seated next to Hadley on the plane, following their initial flirtation in the airport.

The two hit it off in the air — they nearly share a first kiss in the dim glow outside the airplane bathroom — but suffer some missed connections on the ground, where it's up to love itself to make sure they stay connected.

The mechanics are what they are, and Jameela Jamil ("The Good Place") plays a fairy-like character who keeps popping up to intervene on the side of fate, not unlike Rowan Atkinson's character in "Love Actually." But what at first seems like a doe-eyed crush between Hadley and Oliver loses its spark over the course of the movie's runtime, as the movie traverses rockier emotional ground outside the pleasantries of their initial meet up. By the end you're wondering not only if they'll make it, but whether they even should.

"Love at First Sight" marks the feature debut of Vanessa Caswill, and it's self-aware enough for its characters to reference and discuss, in their words, "cheesy romantic comedies" with built-in happy endings. But not all happy endings are created equally, and this one never quite gets off the ground.

agraham@detroitnews.com

'Love at First Sight'

GRADE: C

Rated PG-13: for brief strong language and some suggestive references

Running time: 91 minutes

On Netflix