SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW! A young romantic uncovers the past he never knew he had in Geoffrey Cowper’s romance, Books & Drinks.
Written by Josep Ciutat, our hero is David (Jackson Rathbone), the owner of a failing bookstore. David is a periodic purest and refuses to carry books that please the messes with junk food stories, such as Fifty Shades of Grey. One day, his mother, Clara (Carol Halstead), reveals that his unknown father, who left him as an infant, recently died and left him a two-million-dollar mansion in the Dominican Republic.
David needs to go to the mansion in the Dominican immediately and sell it fast as his demanding fiance Rachel (Clara Lago) needs him back in time to accompany Rachel to her sister’s wedding. When David arrives in the Dominican, he is aided by the beautiful real estate Maria (Nashla Bogaert). Sparks fly between David and Maria, but alas, both are already in relationships.
As Maria starts the process of selling the mansion, David has a chance to get to know his deceased father through the help of his father’s personal chef, Michael (David Maler), and housekeeper, Laura (Katherine Montes). Seeing that David needs to spend more time with not only his father’s legacy in the Dominican but also with himself, Laura takes it upon herself to covertly stall a generous offer on the manor.
While exploring the mansion’s waterscape, Laura pushes David into the pool for some playful shenanigans and awkward interplay, only to be caught by an angry Rachel, who arrives to get David to take the sale of the mansion seriously. She calls out the apparent affair when she catches soaking wet David and Maria with only towels on.
“…his unknown father…left him a two-million-dollar mansion in the Dominican Republic.”
Books & Drinks is everything you’d expect in a romance set in the beautiful landscape of the Dominican Republic. The film takes us on a fairly extensive tour of this gorgeous country, from the rainforests to the mountains and beaches.
The film is also fun, safe, and buttery with love. Geoffrey Cowper masterfully tells a tale of the fish-out-of-water American finding love, romance, and himself. I don’t know that Cowper elevates the rom-com genre in any way, but he certainly checks all the right boxes to get the right feelings.
Of course, there has to be a love triangle. The interactions between David, Maria, and Rachel are played out perfectly. David is the lost soul, oblivious to how Maria and Rachel play him. Maria’s attempt to stall the sale is done with good intentions but becomes sub-text for something more profound. Rachel is the stereotypical foil to David’s pursuit of happiness, but she’s not the calculating femme fatale.
Most importantly, it’s hard not to fall in love with our leads, Jackson Rathbone and Nashla Bogaert as David and Maria. Let’s face it: if you can put yourself in the protagonists’ shoes, you’ve failed as a romance. Cowper turns their romance into a love song that hits all the right notes.
Yes, the plot gets a bit schmaltzy…a lot, but Cowper never overplays his hand. I like how he takes many rom-com tropes and finds a way to ground them in reality. David’s journey to discover his father is as much of his character arc as his budding relationship with Maria.
The declaration from David’s mother regarding why she hid his father’s whereabouts is probably the only tropey scene, but the film had built enough goodwill to this point that the moment gets a pass.
Books & Drinks shines thanks to a grounded and restrained story by Josep Ciutat and director Cowper, who knows how to hit that right rom-com tone to make the story feel fresh.
Books & Drinks screened at the 2024 Santa Barabara International Film Festival.
"…turns their romance into a love song that hits all the right notes."
Wow we saw two different movies then. The one I had saw had ridiculous script, shots that didn’t match, and acting while not bad serviceable with what they had to work with. I guess a romcom works when the girlfriend is unlikeable, the guy just leaves to go sell that house nevermind even in the DR you have to go through probate and a title that has noting really to do with the main plot. He could have worked at a home depot and it wouldn’t matter. Anyway at least the drone shots of the house were nice.