''Some Kind of Beautiful'' (Canadian title: ''How to Make Love Like an Englishman'', UK title: ''Lessons in Love'', European title: '' Teach Me Love'') is a 2014 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film written by Matthew Newman, directed by Tom Vaughan, and starring

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 (''GoldenEye'', ''Tomorrow ...

Jessica Alba Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in '' Camp Nowhere'' and '' The Secret World of Alex Mack'' (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 ...

and

Salma Hayek Salma Hayek Pinault ( , ; born Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez; September 2, 1966) is a Mexican and American actress and film producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela ''Teresa'' (1989–1991) as well as the ...

. It was produced by Kevin Frakes and Richard Lewis.

Plot

By day, Richard Haig (

) is a successful and well-respected English professor in the UK. By night, Richard indulges his own romantic fantasies with a steady stream of beautiful undergraduates. So when Kate (

), Richard's stunning, athletic, 25-year-old American girlfriend tells him that she is pregnant, Richard is shocked. Putting his wandering eye behind him, he marries her and agrees to move to Los Angeles to start their family. It doesn't take long for Richard to realize that his past is hard to escape, as is the toll his strained relationship with his dysfunctional father has had on him. Meanwhile, Kate tells Richard that she has developed feelings for someone else. They separate and Richard is now free to move on with Kate's sister Olivia (

), with whom he has been in love with since before he married Kate. Olivia and Richard start dating soon after.

Cast

Production

and

Kristin Scott Thomas Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas (born 24 May 1960) is a British actress who also holds French citizenship. A five-time British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Award and Laurence Olivier Award, Olivier Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best ...

were the first to be cast in May. Thomas later dropped out and was replaced by

Ben McKenzie Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan (born September 12, 1978) is an American actor and commentator. He is best known for his starring television roles as Ryan Atwood on the teen drama ''The O.C.'' (2003–2007), Ben Sherman on the crime drama ''Southlan ...

joined the cast on October 17.

Filming

The film was shot for 25 days, production started filming in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on October 14, 2013 and ended on November 9, 2013.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the AFM on November 6, 2014. The film was released in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

on June 4, 2015. The film was released on

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

on July 23, 2015, prior to being released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...

on August 21, 2015.

Reception

The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a 6% rating based on 34 reviews, with an

average rating In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

of 3.25/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Stranding Pierce Brosnan as a charmless cad, this tone-deaf romantic comedy is ''Some Kind Of'' something, but it definitely isn't beautiful."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives the film a weighted average score of 11% based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".

References

External links

* * * * * {{Tom Vaughan 2014 romantic comedy films 2014 films American romantic comedy films Films directed by Tom Vaughan (director) Films scored by David Newman Films shot in Los Angeles Saban Films films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films