52 Words for Love is sometimes tender and moving, sometimes petty and curt, sometimes hurt and angry and it examines the nature of modern love with a warm and unjaundiced eye. The film gently appraises the lives of its characters as they negotiate, reject, beg, or demand love. The title of the movie indicates that filmmakers already understand there is no answer, that love is elusive and complex, but it is a joy to watch them turn the idea of love around in their hands and examine its myriad facets. Beautifully composed and mounted, skillfully written and acted, achingly romantic, 52 Words for Love is a love letter to love itself.

More of a research project than a movie, "52 Words for Love" asks questions about the unanswerable: what is love? By offering up a weekly synonym for love on her social network, Alice opens a can of complicated worms. Candid interviews reveal the wide scope of the love definition, and how it drives everyone on a daily basis. Quite timely this, as set in stone relationship standards have been obliterated in recent times. Pretty much everything is on and off the table. And men, who not so long ago were awkwardly, if not staunchly mum on the subject, are suddenly in on the discussion. This is all about relationships, how they develop, how they succeed, how they fail, how they flounder, how they grow, and how everyone involved, when prodded, sees their own unique dance. In the end, nothing is really answered, but that was a given, other than that love is a personal, often ethereal thing, and deserves ongoing dissection. Good luck.