By Dominic Preston.

Strong performances from a very able cast sadly aren’t enough to save The Face of Love from an unstable script with a central hook that is simply mind-boggling rather than compelling.

Annette Bening stars as Nikki, still struggling with grief five years on from the death of her husband, played by Ed Harris. As she tries to engage with the world again, she finds herself falling in love with Tom, a local art teacher who just so happens to look exactly like her late husband, played by, well, Ed Harris again.

To its credit, the script avoids clichés about destiny and resists the urge to cast this as a fairytale relationship. Instead, the focus lies on dealing with the end of major relationships, through death or otherwise, and how to find love afterwards. Nikki’s interest in Tom is rightly challenged, and frequently, scriptwriters Matthew McDuffie and Arie Posin recognising that luring someone into a relationship because they look just like your dead husband is rarely the sign of tip-top mental health.

Bening and Harris both convince, with the latter in particular maintaining an understated charm as Tom that helps ground Nikki’s attraction, a welcome jolt of reality when the ludicrousness of the plot setup becomes too much. Robin Williams also puts in a good appearance as Nikki’s neighbour, also dealing with the death of a spouse, reminding us that his dramatic roles were always some of his finest.

When you can forget about the bizarre plot contrivances, The Face of Love is a thoughtful and reflective film about love and grief. The central performances are strong enough to make it worth a watch, though never quite manage to overcome the problems inherent to the script.

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