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Love Sarah

5/10

Stars: Celia Imrie, Rupert Penry-Jones, Shelley Conn, Bill Paterson, Shannon Tarbet, Lucy Fleming, Denise Welch

Director: Eliza Schroeder

As light and airy as a croissant and about as filling, this is the slimmest of feelgood romcoms, kicking off when the title character (Candice Brown) is killed while cycling towards the bakery she had planned to open with longtime best friend Isabella (Conn).

Although Isabella is also Cordon Bleu-trained, Sarah was the chef-in-charge and driving force, and it looks as though the premises will have to be sold.

Meanwhile, Sarah's daughter Clarissa (Tarbet), a budding dancer, is having trouble coping with her mother's death. Walking out of her class and dumped by her boyfriend (Max Parker), she moves in with her grandmother Mimi (Imrie), a former trapeze artist (!), who has inexplicably refused Sarah finance for the bakery, but is now willing to come up with the goods.

The search for a new head baker seems endless, but salvation is at hand, in one of the film's many happenstances, in the form of Sarah's ex (Penry-Jones along for the eye candy), a master baker looking for a new challenge. As if.

And so it goes, with a few humps and bumps along the way, but little to disturb the sugary content of this cinematic comfort food. Imrie, as always, is a pleasure.

David Quinlan

UK 2019. UK Distributor: Parkland Entertainment. Colour by Arri.
94 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 12.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 1, Swearing 1.

Review date: 03 Sep 2020

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