When a struggling English author becomes surprisingly successful in Mexico, his agent sends him on a whistle stop tour of the country to cash in on the love for his book. Except, it isn't his book any more. It has his name on it, but the translation has been heavily edited to make it more racy, and the women (and some of the men too) of Mexico can't get enough of him.
Not speaking a word of Spanish doesn't help him, but through one thing or another it slowly begins to dawn on him what has actually happened and that the translator, the pretty and cynical Maria Rodriguez (Verónica Echegui) is really responsible for his alleged success.
A mostly harmless, forgettable romantic comedy. Claflin has done better, most notably opposite Emilia Clark in Me Before You, which is surprising for no other treason that all of his limbs were working in this one. It is light, airy and has little of the charm that Mexico has to offer, and what there is comes across as cliched and slightly patronising. and I know, I have driven leisurely through all of it in Horizon 5 just recently, but its not bad for that, but because I wasn't gunning for the two leads to fall in love like I have in other films, being the softy I am at heart.
The romance felt forced and unbelievable, even given the circumstances that they were both practically locked together on his tour and afterwards in the preparation of their next collaboration. There was no real chemistry on display that I felt gripped by in the same way that all of his readers in Mexico were gripped to the words that he, ahem, Maria had written.
There is the payoff, of course, but whether it was really satisfying, you'll have to judge for yourself. I love a love story, told well, and honestly, this wasn't it. It probably just needs an edit.
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