Love Hate (2009)

Brother and sister in "Brideshead Revisited", now a couple in this sweet short film; Ben Whishaw and Hayley Atwell are a sensation together, no matter the project. In "Love Hate", Whishaw plays a happy charity worker whose life goes okay, except for having to deal with occasional rejection from the passers-by of whom he tries to present his work and maybe for not getting involved in any relationship lately, but everything's fine. It all changes when a mysterious woman (Atwell) enters his life to never leave. At first, they seemed to have nothing in common but then they formed a perfect couple. Who's the girl? An important part of the man, and he probably didn't even knew about it and now it's something that makes him feel more alive, and quite erroneous as well.

A fine combination between drama and humor, "Love Hate" tells us a story about the importance of having a balanced life and discover that some bad things really can make us grow, feel better about ourselves. And no, I'm not necessarily talking that only love can change us, but a bit of anger, hatred, loathe - though bad and prejudicial - but they can make a fine balance in everyone's lives. It can also be viewed about the toxicity of poisoning relationships some people have with others, changing from water to wine and back to water again. The movie chronicles some situations where the guy is led by the girl to do things he never done before (which includes picking on people, fights with his friends, extreme reactions) just to please her.

Light, hilarious and romantically charming, "Love Hate" has what many feature films don't have and really knows how to use its time to presents its ideas in a beautiful form. And the chemistry between Hatwell and Whishaw is just lovely, you can't miss. 9/10