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R: ARCHIVE, S: REVIEWS, D: 02/20/1997,

Hotel de Love

This well-meaning, quirky little love story from Australian first-timer Craig Rosenberg follows the romantic fortunes of fraternal twins -- the handsome Rick (Aden Young) and the twitchy Stephen (Simon Bossel) -- who fall in love with the same beautiful girl, Melissa (Saffron Burrows). Naturally Melissa falls for Rick, leaving Stephen to pine from a distance.

Ten years on, Rick is the manager of an outrageously kitschy honeymoon hotel, cynical now but still handsome. Stephen is a lonely stockbroker, and twitchier than ever. The twins' bickering parents arrive at the hotel to renew their marriage vows and bicker. For some reason Stephen is there too. So naturally the still beautiful Melissa shows up with her nerdy fiancé in tow and finds both Rick and Stephen still determined to win her heart. The scene is set for romantic horseplay and cockle-of-the-heart-warming.

Unfortunately, well-meaning too easily translates into excruciatingly naive, and quirky into daft. My cockles were boiling by the time I left the theater -- otherwise, Hotel de Love left me cold. At the Nickelodeon and in the suburbs.

-- Chris Wright