You know how ridiculous it feels to write a significant chunk of a column about how rare it is for a Netflix original movie to lose the number one spot on the streamer’s charts after just one day, only to have that exact same thing happen less than a week later? Admittedly, this is a much different situation than the swift fall of Spy Kids: Armageddon (which has actually stuck around on the lower rungs of the Netflix movie ladder for over a week). A hardly advertised original rom-com from Australia debuted on Netflix last week, one day before a much higher profile original dropped.
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The film in question is a Netflix original movie out of Australia called Love Is in the Air. It took the top spot on Netflix’s movie charts on Friday, September 29th, the same day that the Benicio Del Toro-starring thriller Reptile debuted on the service. Naturally, Love Is in the Air only sat atop the charts for 24 hours before being passed by Reptile, but it’s honestly a little impressive that the low budget film got there at all.
Love Is in the Air (2023)
For those following along at home, this is the second romantic comedy that has topped the daily Netflix movie charts since this column began. The film stars Australian musician Delta Goodrem as a pilot working alongside her father to keep their small charter business afloat. Joshua Sasse, of Galavant fame, is the son of a bigwig financier in London, who is tasked with shutting down the little Australian runway in order to save his company a few pennies.
You see where this is going, right? It’s a very standard, run-of-the-mill rom-com concept, where opposing forces find themselves falling for one another. Like so many Hallmark movies released around the holidays, the rich and entitled man comes to the small town and learns to see it the way its locals do, changing his mind about his work in the process.
Pass or Play?
I’m being completely honest when I say this is the most difficult “Pass or Play” decision I’ve had with the Netflix Top Movie Diary so far. For a general moviegoer, I’d say Pass. The quality here much closer to a Hallmark TV film than some other Netflix rom-coms, such as Love at First Sight or Set It Up. It’s cheap and cheesy, you know where it’s going the entire time and nothing at all will surprise you.
Then again, is that really a bad thing? There’s a time and place for cheap and cheesy rom-coms. Being “like a Hallmark movie” doesn’t always have to be a dig. The budget isn’t there and there’s nothing overly special going on, but the script also isn’t a train wreck and every actor does a good job. There’s some real heart to it and a few decent laughs as well. If this was a Hallmark movie, it would absolutely be on the higher end of the scale.
So if you’re someone who likes those kind of rom-coms, or even just finds yourself in the mood for one now and again, Love Is in the Air is worth your time. At no point is it groan-worthy or difficult to watch. It’s fun and serviceable, which is more than I can say for most movies with similar concepts and budgets.
What to Watch Next/Instead
I hate to go right back to a movie I just wrote about a couple of weeks ago, but Love at First Sight has been hanging around in my mind a lot since I first watched it. It’s one of Netflix’s better rom-coms so, if that’s the kind of movie you’re in the mood for, Love at First Sight is one of your best options.
Additionally, a couple of iconic Julia Roberts rom-coms just got added to Netflix’s lineup. Runaway Bride and My Best Friend’s Wedding are both currently streaming, and it’s never a bad time to watch either of those.
Thanks for reading the Netflix Top Movie Diary! You can follow along and check out all of the column’s previous entries here.
