O Desenrolar do Amor (2025)

missing a spark

Have to preface that I don’t think my standards were set incredibly high coming into this — when you watch this type of romcom youth movie you pretty much know what you’re going to get, plot-wise. A movie like this is elevated on the strength of its cast.

That’s where this movie misses the mark. I just don’t feel like I was given enough to fall in love with these characters. I think the male lead was miscast and I didn’t feel chemistry between him and the female lead. The other love interest character was barely in it, and because of that it didn’t really make an impact when the FL chose the ML over him. It just felt like “okay yeah, duh.” This applies to the entire movie; the emotional gravitas was missing, or the “spark”.

A strength was the FL’s group of friends — I loved how they were always so supportive of her.

I liked that the FL was able to realise on her own that the ML always liked her for who she was, but the problem was after that realisation I felt like the movie was just floundering. The forced “ML had to leave” and “she tells him to go even though she loves him” but they meet again 1-2 years later in college story thread really didn’t need to be included. It felt tired and not well-paced.

Dunno what was the point of having the character of FL’s fraternal twin sister. She had like one line. I thought she would play a role in the story; you have a pair of fraternal twin sisters but one is prettier (this isn’t true ofc but ykwim) and achieves better grades, and there’s just no conflict arising from that?

Overall I think there’s way better 2000s nostalgia-bait youth romance movies. I think others did it better and this one just feels like a pale imitation, to be honest.

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I am not the demographic that Love Untangled was aimed at, so I struggled with the first half of this film where Park Se Ri and her friends were obsessed with creating the right moment for her to confess to the cute boy in school. She only knew he was popular and she wanted to be seen with him which made her come across as superficial instead of “adorable” and “lively.” Her curly hair was supposed to be a metaphor for her tangled love life, but instead it came to represent her chaotic and tangled thoughts regarding herself and her hair.

Park Se Ri and her posse work tirelessly to find the perfect moment for her to confess to Kim Hyeon. She returns to the secluded beach where they both ended up swimming one day only to rescue new student Han Yun Seok from drowning instead. Park’s posse helps Han out as his leg is broken and soon he’s working with them to create origami love eggs for Kim. When Park discovers that Han’s mom has a process to straighten her unruly locks, she further ingratiates herself to him hoping the mom will give her a discount on the expensive treatment.

The ahjussi elephant in the room was that Gong Myoung was 31 in 2025 compared to Shin Eun Soo’s 22. If you are a fan of Cha Woo Min, he’s a small supporting role rather than main character. The twin sister mentioned prominently in the intro faded away almost immediately. None of the characters in the friend group were developed enough to tell them apart. Their sole goal was to support Park Se Ri which made her come across as self-centered. She wasn’t afraid to be manipulative with them or with Han Yun Seok. The first hour with her whining, ranting, and pouting was hard to watch. Only as she started appreciating the person next to her, did she settle down and think about someone else. The second half of the film was a much easier watch for me.

Unlike characters who are considered ugly because they wear glasses and capitulate to wearing contacts, Park’s inner war with her hair became less important as she matured and accepted herself. After all, she had loyal friends, found love, and had a great family. Humans always seem to want what they don’t have be it straight hair or curly. The first half of the film had Park Se Ri living her life superficially, in the second half she dug a little deeper to discover other people had their own problems and she needed to be a friend to them even if it required sacrifice on her part.

15 August 2026

Cameo spoiler note below:






















*Sweet Baby Gong Yoo made a cameo near the end of the film along with his Kim Ji Young: Born 1982 costar Jung Yu Mi!

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