A young, creative woman approaching 30 feels pressure by her family to settle down. A spiritual guide tells her that she will fall in love within a set time. Her gay bestie is there for her through it all. The dates are less than stellar and her first love is waiting in the wings. What I just described could be a list of common romcom tropes, or they could be the exact plot to Amazon Prime Video’s newest offering. Picture This is a by-the-book romantic comedy that cannot be saved by its fresh-faced leads or by its comedic side characters.
Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley stars as Pia, a British-Indian photographer up to her eyeballs in debt and late rent payments. Her best friend Jay (Luke Fetherston) insists she starts taking passport photos but Pia is completely against it. She is happily single but is still hung up on her first love, Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), much to the chagrin of her mother (Sindhu Vee) and newly engaged sister Sonal (Anoushka Chadha).
After a spiritual advisor for the wedding predicts she will find love in five dates, she decides to let her family set her up, which leads to hilarious outcomes and into Charlie’s arms, who just so happens to be the best man.
You know that joke about kids trying to get into a bar so they stack on top of one another and try to pass as a super tall adult? Picture This is a series of tropes in a trench coat trying to pass for a romcom. It is a perfectly mediocre film that is better suited to romance fans than the average moviegoer. There’s nothing really special or funny about it. Even Ted Lasso’s Phil Dunster doesn’t add much to it and that’s saying something (he’s Jamie Tartt for Christ sake).
Picture This’ origins are more interesting to me than the actual plot. It is based on an Australian film that premiered in the U.S. in February of 2024 under the Amazon Prime name. Five Blind Dates wasn’t a huge hit even though it sported names like Tzi Mai (The Farewell) and Desmond Chaim (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Picture This was in post-production two months after the original premiered. Both films are in English so it’s a mystery why the newer one exists in the first place.
Picture This doesn’t change the form and isn’t some revolutionary romcom. Simone Ashley is an endearing heroine but doesn’t give her character a new spin. Tiffin isn’t given enough to do to even really be called a lead. If the romcom isn’t your chosen genre, this is one of those movies that you will wonder why it was made while you are watching it and then forget about it the moment it is over.
Prime Video is streaming Picture This now.
