Summary
I’m almost sure My Fault will be a giant hit among Gen Z, but the frequent tone shifts, lack of focus, and cheesy, Velveeta-like dialogue are too much for the likable young leads to overcome in such an overblown, soapy picture.
“I thought I was your only sister?” As the lead characters kiss, one holds a finger to the other’s lips and says, “You are my stepsister, and you are seventeen.” Then comes the reply, “Then kiss me until I’m eighteen.” No, this isn’t any frat boys’ fantasy or a film from the 70s shown in theatres populated by dirty old men in trench coats.
No, this is My Fault, a steamy young-adult 2023 romance film that embraces its over-the-top absurdity with the worst case of attention deficit disorder I’ve ever seen. At least, this Spanish streaming film never pretends to be anything it’s not, which is saying a lot nowadays.
My Fault (2023) Review and Plot Summary
Noah (Nicole Wallace) isn’t happy at the moment. Her mother, Rafaella (Marta Hazas), has married a dashing billionaire, Will (Iván Sánchez), and they move to a beautiful seaside town.
The new union has forced Noah away from her boyfriend and best friend. Seventeen and going into her last year of high school, Noah is an independent, proud, and brilliant spitfire who doesn’t need anyone.
That’s when she meets Nick (Gabriel Guevara), Will’s bad boy son, who’s Noah’s new stepbrother. A young man with a penchant for partying, gambling, fighting, and racing fast cars with any woman willing to hold on for dear life in the passenger seat.
Soon, Noah must navigate the friction tension with Nick, a stalker leaving her notes with nasty little threatening sonnets, and a coked-out local gangster she beats like a badass in a race that would make James Dean blush.
That’s the carrot, and there are many carrots because the adaptation of the first entry into Mercedes Ron’s best-selling Culpables trilogy, Culpa Mía, doesn’t have a stick. Ron adapted his work with the help of Domingo González, making his directorial debut, and he has never met a genre cliché he didn’t like.
The film changes direction faster than the characters taking their sharp drifts.
Starting as a rom-com, it shifts gears into an underground martial arts movie, and then into a badass street racing action picture. There are also snippets of psychological stalker tributes — I half expected a Patrick Bergen cameo of Sleeping with the Enemy fame — then settling into a steamy YA romance when My Fault needs a break from its cinematic dissociative identity disorder.
Is the 2023 movie My Fault Good or Bad?
And I hate to admit it. I cannot argue that My Fault isn’t at least entertaining and doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. The problem is that it’s laughable. I found myself chuckling openly at the sheer audacity of the scenes and dialogue.
From the killer over-the-top ending to Nick telling Noah she deserves the antonym of “Inuit kisses” by telling her she needs “fire volcanos on your mouth,” it’s bad in a mindless way for the fans it was made for.
Is the 2023 movie My Fault Worth Watching?
If anything, My Fault is worth watching for the charismatic leads that burn up the screen. It’s almost refreshing to see a film that doesn’t shy away from and embraces sexuality, particularly in young people, a significant part of most human culture. Wallace and Guevara have incredible chemistry that is palpable. This fact alone will keep the viewer engaged.
However, the film is strictly made for fans of young-adult romance. While González ramps up a significant amount of heat here, the frequent tone shifts, lack of focus, and cheesy, Velveeta-like dialogue are too much for the likable young leads to overcome in such an overblown, soapy picture.
What did you think of the 2023 film My Fault? Comment below.
Yo. Mental illnesses are adjectives