HOTEL DE LOVE

The Australian comedy HOTEL DE LOVE is a quirky look at the universal search for love in the 1990s. The movie’s character and plot situations are mired in modern cynicism. Romance prevails, punctuated by an overabundance of sexual discussion and a casual attitude toward sex.

HOTEL DE LOVE opens in an airport, where 27-year-old Stephen Dunne (Simon Bossell ) is studying the disembarking passengers and those who await them. By calculating the ratio of unaccompanied air travelers to those who have someone waiting to meet them, Stephen believes he can deduce the statistical likelihood of finding true love. He believes he has been in love only once, when he was 17. He spots a beautiful girl named Melissa (Saffron Burrows) at a party, but before he can speak with her, his fraternal twin, Rick (Aden Young), beats him to the punch. Melissa falls in love with Rick, who eventually deflowers her before she moves away.

Now, ten years later, Rick is the cynical, womanizing employee of the abominably tacky HOTEL DE LOVE, while Stephen is a businessman and still romantically-challenged. The movie’s namesake comes from safari or island themed honeymoon suites decorated in garish hues with theme park furnishings. In keeping with its general flavor of cheesiness and commercialized “romance,” the film features an excellent soundtrack of 70’s disco hits and schmaltzy love songs. Here, Melissa suddenly surfaces with her latest boyfriend, an older, “sensitive” type. Rick and Stephen, still besotted, independently set out to win her heart once again. As they endeavor to disentangle themselves from their own confusion, HOTEL DE LOVE’s characters fall in and out of bed with one another.

HOTEL DE LOVE, with its pseudo-French name and its seedy “romance,” is really a metaphor for the cheap “love” created by modern commercialism and self-indulgence. Despite the characters’ best efforts to deny their passion and avoid intimacy, “true love” eventually conquers all. This victory is accomplished by twists of fate and coincidences. The workings of fate (not God) thus finally pairs each character with his or her destined match. Stephen’s statistics, the anonymous poetry and 70s love songs are all exposed as man’s futile attempts to express emotion and alter destiny. Man’s only weapon against the cruel twists of fate, according to this movie, is honest verbal communication. When the characters converse openly, rather than playing silly games, love begins to blossom.

None of these greater powers, however, are even vaguely attributed to God. HOTEL DE LOVE subscribes to the same sort of spiritualism embodied by New Age philosophy and tarot cards. Stephen, in fact, falls in love with an astrologer named Alison, who emerges as the film’s wisest character. The film further upholds the belief that there is a “right” person for everyone, but never identifies a benchmark for that standard. HOTEL DE LOVE is thus romantic but not godly. It is furthermore suffused by sexual discussion and sexual activity.