"We just keep missing each other. Maybe we're just not meant to be."
"No matter where you are or what you're doing, or who you're with, I will always honestly, truly, completely love you."
— Rosie
Love, Rosie is a 2014 romantic dramedy directed by Christian Ditter, adapted from the 2004 novel Where Rainbows End by Cecilia Ahern.
Rosie (Lily Collins) and Alex (Sam Claflin) have been best friends for as long as they can remember and plan to go to college in Boston together. Alex kisses Rosie on her 18th birthday; however, she is too drunk to remember it and Alex misconstrues her statement as wanting to stay Just Friends. Rosie gets pregnant by a classmate and decides to keep the baby without telling Alex, who goes on to Harvard without her. As the years go by, Alex and Rosie's devotion to each other, and their nebulous, never-addressed feelings, are tested by several complications.
The film also stars Tamsin Egerton as Sally, Suki Waterhouse as Bethany, and Christian Cooke as Greg.
Tropes:
- But We Used a Condom!: Rosie and Greg used one while having sex, but it slipped off inside her, and thus she got pregnant (along with having to fish the thing out again).
- Business Trip Adultery: Greg calls from a hotel to extend his "work trip", which leads Rosie to find out he's actually cheating on her.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Alex and Rosie have been best friends their entire lives and eventually develop feelings for each other; however, circumstances continue to keep them from acting on it.
- Chick Magnet: Despite seeming rather socially awkward and moody, Alex loses his virginity to a future fashion model (whom he subsequently marries after a brief courtship) and gets chatted up in a pub by a gorgeous American classmate, in addition to Rosie pining after him from afar.
- Disappeared Dad: Greg ran away after learning Rosie was pregnant, and they weren't in contact for five years until she had contacted him after failing to make a relationship with Alex. Then he gets to know their daughter and they get married, but the marriage falls apart when he cheats.
- Disposable Fiancé: Thrice over. Both Alex and Rosie end relationships with serious love interests before finally getting together.
- First there's Sally, Alex's girlfriend in medical school, who cheats on him.
- Then there's Greg, Rosie's high school fling and Katie's father, whom Rosie actually marries before he cheats on her.
- Finally, there's Alex's high school girlfriend Bethany, who marries Alex before they break it off and Alex can finally be with Rosie.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: After finding out that Alex's girlfriend is three months pregnant, Rosie goes back to England, reconnects with Katie's father, and is married to him before the baby is born.
- Generation Xerox: Rosie's daughter Katie develops a very close friendship-bordering-on-romance with a boy named Toby; Rosie and Alex are reminded of themselves.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Rosie gets accidentally pregnant, but doesn't have an abortion, explained as a vestige of her Catholic upbringing, even though she's not a believer herself.
- In Medias Res: The film opens immediately before Rosie delivers a speech at Alex's wedding, before jumping back to their childhood friendship.
- Law of Inverse Fertility: Rosie and Greg certainly weren't planning to conceive (they used a condom), but she became pregnant by accident due to a mishap with it.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: When Rosie and Greg have sex, it takes longer for him to put on the condom than the actual sex. And Rosie's bored and confused face as he humps her clearly indicates she didn't enjoy it. And to make things worse for her, since he didn't put the condom right, it slipped off inside her, and thus she got pregnant (along with having to fish the thing out again).
- New Old Flame: Rosie gets back together with her baby daddy Greg and Alex gets back together with his high school date Bethany at different points in the story.
- Not Actually His Child: Alex breaks up with his girlfriend Sally after finding out he's not the father of her unborn child.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Rosie gets pregnant due to a tryst with her date Greg after a dance. After she tells him about the pregnancy, he immediately runs off.
- Poor Communication Kills: Part of the reason Alex and Rosie's relationship doesn't move forward is they never properly discuss the kiss they shared at her 18th birthday party. It turns out that Alex misinterpreted Rosie's comment about wanting to forget her party as her rejecting him romantically; due to having gotten extremely drunk she didn't remember the kiss at all.
- Teen Pregnancy: Rosie gets pregnant by Greg just as she's about to leave for college, and she has to put her schooling on hold. She later decides to keep the baby.
- Timeshifted Actors: Different actors portray Alex and Rosie as children, and also Katie at different stages of her childhood.
- Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: The condom Rosie used when having sex with Greg got stuck inside her and she's unable to retrieve it. In the hotel elevator, she calls Alex in a panic, trying to use discreet euphemisms, but when he doesn't understand she describes the problem in excruciating detail. A man standing behind her overhears and looks at her, perturbed. Twelve years later, he's the first guest to check into Rosie's hotel, and asks her if he knows her from somewhere.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Rosie gets so drunk on her 18th birthday that she barely remembers anything that happened, including her impromptu first kiss with Alex.
