Summary
While it has its charm, the film tries blending too many plot points and leaves them all underdeveloped.
Art of Love (2024), originally titled Romantik Hirsiz, is a romantic comedy/heist movie from Türkiye. Written by Pelin Karamehmetoglu and directed by Recai Karagöz, this genre-bending Netflix feature includes art theft, Interpol, romance, a billionaire, and an evil villain with a secret vault. Lighthearted and amusing, the film follows an Interpol agent desperate to prove that her ex is, in fact, an art thief.
Former art curator turned Interpol agent Alin (Esra Bilgiç) spent the past few months chasing a notorious art thief who has been successfully stealing pieces from museums all across Europe. Oddly enough, the thief only goes for relatively cheap love and romance-themed works. As soon as Alin figures out his pattern, she stakes out a gallery but almost misses the mysterious culprit.
To Alin’s shock, the thief is none other than her ex-boyfriend, Güney (Birkan Sokullu). The only problem is that Güney is a well-known billionaire, so the young woman will need substantial proof before her superiors entertain the idea of arresting him. Naturally, she comes up with a plan to entrap Güney and get revenge for the abrupt way he ended their relationship all those years ago. Her plan starts to fumble when the more time she spends with the charming billionaire, the more Alin’s feelings for him resurface.
The film’s visuals are noteworthy. Stunning imagery constantly fills the screen and it does look like it was filmed on location in places like Budapest and Prague, adding a layer of authenticity to its slightly confusing story.
While Alin and Güney are pretty insufferable as characters, Esra Bilgiç and Birkan Sokullu are competent actors who share great on-screen chemistry. The pair’s performance, the fashion, and the shooting locations make Art of Love more fun to watch than it deserves to be.
The issue with this film is that it doesn’t seem to know what type of story it wants to tell. Is it a heist movie about a bored billionaire and his two sidekicks stealing paintings? Is it a police procedural about an Interpol agent desperate to put the wicked art thief behind bars? Is it a romance about former lovers reconnecting under strange circumstances?
All three narrative points are in the movie, but the result feels choppy and disconnected. Character motivations are either nonexistent or too underdeveloped to make much sense. Adding a Disney-type villain in the third act makes the feature even more convoluted.
By the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t sure I fully understood what happened on screen. The story got complicated and it clumsily connected too many narrative points to stay coherent. However, the ride was a lot of fun.
While Art of Love isn’t the most exciting, nor does it make much sense, the film offers plenty of lighthearted charm. It’s a quirky romance about a cop and her bad-boy charismatic lover finding each other again. Sure, not everything works as it should, but as long as you’re willing to suspend disbelief, this feature is worth streaming on a rainy night when you’ve got nothing better to do.
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