For Love or Money Review

For Love or Money was a movie that marketed itself as ‘An Unromantic Comedy’ as it attempts to subvert the rom-com subgenre.

Mark (Robert Kazinsky) is a man who describes himself as a lobotomised hamster when it comes to women. At the age of 30, he is about to sell his start-up company for £20 million. This is when his old school crush, Connie (Samantha Barks), comes back into the picture and plots with the dastardly banker Johnny (Ed Speleers) to swindle Mark out of his money. When Mark finds out about the scheme he sets out to make Connie’s life hell so she would call off their wedding.

I watched For Money or Love for two reasons. The first was I recently watched a few superhero films for personal viewing, so I needed a change of pace. The major reason was I really like Samantha Barks. Ever since she appeared in the talent show I’d Do Anything I thought she was a performer to watch out for and when I wrote for the now-defunct Entertainment Fuse I predicted her casting as Éponine in the Les Misérables adaptation. So, I like to see what she is doing career-wise.

The casting department did go full out for this film. Besides from Barks the cast was filled with recognisable faces for British audiences. Kazinsky was Sean Slater in Eastenders and has had flirtations with Hollywood, Speleers led Eragon and appeared in shows like Downton Abbey and Outlander, and Rachel Hurd-Wood had a leading role in BBC Three’s Clique. Even actors in supporting roles have had notable credits – Tony Way was Dontos Hollard in Game of Thrones, Ivan Kaye was the King of Northumbria in Vikings, Anna Chancellor has had plenty of TV roles, and Tanya Reynolds moved onto the hit Netflix show Sex Education.

Kazinsky, Barks, and Speleers were all playing against type in the film. Kazinsky generally played good-looking bad boy and was supposedly a nerd in For Love or Money. Speleers is a pretty boy and here he was a sleaze. Whilst Barks’ screen roles have often been wholesome, good characters she has a happy social media persona, and she ended up playing a selfish gold digger. Barks was the best at breaking type because she was f-ing and blinding her way through the film and getting increasingly frustrated with Mark’s antics. Speleers was the worst performer because his character was cartoonish, annoying, and a horn dog. I wanted to jump through the screen and drown him in a bath.

The issue with the characters was they were unlikeable. That was the point of Connie and Johnny, but even Mark wasn’t that sympathetic. The film opens with a funeral and Mark only attends to make sure his former bully was dead. He then tries to hit on Connie during her boyfriend’s funeral. As the film progresses Mark gets more sadistic with his actions. Connie was clearly a shallow person who was only interested in her image and the high life and when she was with Johnny they schemed like they were in Cruel Intentions.

The filmmakers did make efforts to make Connie sympathetic at times. At the beginning of the film the young version of Mark embarrasses himself by reading a poem to Connie and she was the only kid not to laugh or bully Mark. When the characters meet Connie’s parents they saw Connie getting embarrassed, insulted, and bullied by them.

Hurd-Wood’s Kendra was the most sympathetic character in the film as she acted as Mark’s conscious. Way was the best comedic performance in the film – he had some of the best lines in the film and his gross, slacker character made Way seem like Nick Frost. The French Bulldog was really cute.

For Love or Money was marketed as an “unromantic comedy” and that made it sound similar to films like (500) Days of Summer and I Give It a Year. For Love or Money was more like I Give It a Year because they were both broader and cruder humour. Yet all three films do share a similar thesis, infatuation is not a good basis for a relationship. The filmmakers had the good sense to avoid the cliché where there was another potential love interest for Mark.

For Love or Money currently has a 5.6 rating on IMDB which is a bit harsh. It was humorous and enjoyable even if the characters were despicable. It was elevated by the talents of the cast.

For Love or Money is currently available on Amazon Prime in the UK.