Picture This (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

Picture This

PICTURE THIS (2025)

Starring Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Anoushka Chadha, Luke Fetherston, Sindhu Vee, Phil Dunster, Mark Wildie, Nikesh Patel, Adil Ray, Kulvinder Ghir, Asim Chaudhry, Freya Ceesay and Renèe Hart.

Screenplay by  Nikita Lalwani.

Directed by Prarthana Mohan.

Distributed by Amazon Prime Video. 137 minutes. Not Rated.

Picture This is a British film that is based on an Australian film, telling the story of an Indian family which lives in the suburbs of London, which is not something that you hear every day. And, in fairness, I have never seen the original Australian movie (called Five Blind Dates) – but I hope it was better than this.

Which is not to say that Picture This is horrible, it’s got some good qualities. It’s just so utterly predictable and so many of the plot points are so horribly cliched and unlikely that it’s hard to get a rooting interest for our main character to finally find true love. (And business success, which honestly seems to be more important to her anyway…)

It’s trying, mostly unsuccessfully, sadly, to be a sweet and charming romantic comedy and an aspirational story of an independent, free-wheeling woman who is trying to find love and peace with her more traditional and (apparently) staid family.

Pia (Simone Ashley from Bridgerton) is a beautiful and independent woman who moved from her family’s hometown to London to chase her dream – running a successful photographic studio with her gay bestie Jay (Luke Fetherstion). Years later her dream studio is near bankruptcy, she is still stubbornly single, and she has to go home for her little sister’s wedding.

The family guru pulls Pia aside and tells her that she will go on five blind dates, and one of those dates will be her true love. Her family quickly gets involved in setting her up with the likes of a childish multi-millionaire, a friend of her mother’s who may be a bit too close to mom, and a white actor-yogi who turns out to be a conspiracy theorist.

Most of the blind dates seem like they may be successful, until the guys suddenly, unexpectedly, turn on a dime and share their strange, unpalatable beliefs.  (Except of course, for the first guy, who was quite obviously an asshole from the jump…)

Plus, her long ago ex Charlie (Hero Fiennes Tiffin of the Alive films) has a gorgeous new girlfriend, but he still is hanging around and obviously still has feelings for Pia.

In fact, to be honest, most (if not all) of the blind date scenes are almost obnoxious in the cartoonish way they treat the men involved. I mean, I get it, it’s a rom com for women, but can’t they come up with some real human beings for Pia to consider?

Not that Pia is some great catch either. Yes, she’s extremely pretty and mostly sweet, but she’s horribly neurotic, self-pitying and her independent spirit occasionally veers into the realms of patronization and snarkiness.

Pia ends up finding financial success through complete happenstance, and frankly the same goes with her finding love. If you don’t know which guy she is going to end up with from the very first time he appears on camera, then you just aren’t trying all that hard.

By the time that they reach the family wedding with the inevitable Bollywood-style dance sequence that closes everything out, most of us have long-since stopped caring.

Now, in fairness, I do recognize that I am not the target audience for Picture This. I saw the movie in a screening which was probably about 80% women, and many of the people surrounding me seemed to be enjoying the movie more than I did. And since it is debuting on Amazon Prime, there is no actual cost to trying it on yourself and seeing if it is a fit.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2025 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: March 5, 2025.