Danielle Solzman
Despite the presence of Kathie Lee Gifford, Craig Ferguson, and Elizabeth Hurley, Then Came You is a mostly forgettable film.
At first glance upon reading the synopsis, you’d have thought this would be a film for cinephiles. Annabelle Wilson (Kathie Lee Gifford) is a widow following the death of her late husband, Fred. Together, the two of them lived in Nantucket and would go to the movies every week. They also ran a hardware store together. Annabelle plans to travel across the globe with her husband’s ashes to visit the places that they loved while watching movies together. This very idea sounds awesome on paper but doesn’t so much execute in terms of the film itself. Anyway, Annabelle arrives in Scotland where she stays at a large estate. Not surprisingly, she meets the innkeeper, Lord Howard Awd (Craig Ferguson), and the rest is history.
After placing her husband’s ashes in a box of chocolates (Forrest Gump), the first stop is in Scotland because of Braveheart. This is the first of some twenty film locations. Watching Lord Awd eviscerate the film is one of the few highlights in the entire film. Sorry, not sorry–you know why! Even though the film runs 97 minutes, the film really crunches down a week’s worth of time. because this is a romantic comedy, you can expect some complications between Annabelle and Howard. One of them being that Howard is engaged to Clare Hollings (Elizabeth Hurley). Will Howard meeting Annabelle be enough to change things? This is not a surprise for any fans of the romantic comedy genre.
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise last Wednesday that my body decided to sleep shortly after pressing play on the screener. I’m writing this on a Sunday night after making another attempt on Friday afternoon. Suffice it to say, not even sleeping on the film improves it much or at all. When I went on Rotten Tomatoes on Sunday evening, there were only three reviews, which isn’t even enough to give the film a percentage. None of them came from the major trades either, which speaks to just how bad this film is. That being said, the film’s cast was enough to draw my attention. However, the film had to fight to keep my attention from the very moment I pressed play.
Despite the best efforts of the cast and crew, Then Came You will not be one of the memorable films in 2020.
DIRECTOR: Adriana Trigiani
SCREENWRITER: Kathie Lee Gifford
CAST: Craig Ferguson, Kathie Lee Gifford, Elizabeth Hurley, and Ford Kiernan
