The Hating Game

About as bland and as easily consumed as a cone of soft-serve ice-cream on a hot day.

There are some decent twists, especially when we learn of Joshua's family history, and the chemistry between the two starsripples with possibility.

It's a familiar but perfectly viable starting point, in a genre where what matters isn't the premise so much as what you do with it. But director Peter Hutchings and writer Christina Mengert have no ambitions to take us anywhere new.

One major reason this all reads as sexy and funny on the screen: Hale and Stowell are not just well cast in the roles, they have actual chemistry, too.

While it's predictable, this peppy works as a rom-com thanks to the sparks that fly between the two leads, played with coy sexiness by Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell.

...tedious and uninvolving...

If you’re a fan of romantic comedies, then The Hating Game is easy to love.

Fans of the book will appreciate how true the adaptation stays to its source material, and those new to the story will hopefully appreciate its character quirks and workplace rivalry.

The first half hour dreadfully introduces its protagonists... However, as the unresolved sexual tension initially builds up into heat and evolves into true love and the beginning of a relationship, the story improves. [Full review in Spanish]

The obvious chemistry of two good-looking leads like Hale and Stowell, helps to better digest a relationship with little suspense and sparkling dialogues, taken from a rereading of the screwball comedy in a Starbucks. [Full review in Spanish]