If Only

If you have a pulse, the film should entertain you. And it did manage to make me and mom tear and cry. A must-film for all couples to watch alone/ together, you decide. “Love your partner like there is no tomorrow. Treasure your partner when they are still there or …

“If Only” chronicles a day in the life of Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a precocious American (aren’t they all?) studying music in London, and her boyfriend Ian (Paul Nicholls), a somewhat stuffy financial something-or-rather. As the day begins, Ian is nonchalantly chalking up negative points by forgetting important dates and just generally acting like a tool toward his sympathetic girlfriend, who seems to want nothing from him except to love him, and be loved in return. At the end of the night, everything comes to a head, as the two abruptly calls it off and Samantha promptly enters a cab that gets broadsided, killing her. It’s only then that Ian realizes what he had, but of course it’s too late to make amends. Luckily for the grieving boyfriend, when he wakes up the next morning, Samantha is alive again. Even stranger, he’s reliving that fateful day, and he’s the only one who remembers it!

All of this takes place within the first 30 minutes, setting the stage for the film’s final hour, which follows Ian as he battles confusion, followed by realization, becomes lost in desperation, and finally discovers acceptance of what’s happened, and will happen. Armed with the knowledge of the day’s events, Ian resolves to save Samantha’s life using his knowledge of the day’s upcoming events. But fate will not be denied, and for every negative event Ian averts, a similar negative event takes its place later on in the day. How do you fight destiny? The answer seems to lie with a mysterious taxi driver, whose only advise to Ian is to “appreciate”her.

Aside from the fact that we’ve already seen star Jennifer Love Hewitt get broadsided by a car and die on the operating table, “If Only” is actually a rather lively little gem. Hewitt is in trademark happy-go-lucky form, but the real heavy lifting is done by Paul Nicholls, whose character is practically unreadable in the beginning. Which serves our muddled reaction to the character, as we are experiencing Ian through Samantha’s eyes — she simply doesn’t understand him at all even after all these years. As the hour of Samantha’s impending death looms, Nicholls wholly convinces as a man trying desperately to cheat fate.