An Honest Look at Romancing Sydney (2025)

A classic tale of two young, naïve people finding connection and exploring the endless possibilities life can offer us. Sounds like the dream we all want, right? Written, directed, edited and starring Anmol Mishra comes Romancing Sydney. Our film centers on two young people: Sachin (played by Anmol Mishra) and Elisa (played by Susanne Richter). By day, Sachin works at a small antique shop alongside his coworker, George and their boss, Lilli. One night when his car breaks down, Sachin meets Elisa who has been evicted by her landlord. He comforts her and Elisa soon introduces him to the passionate world of dance, where they learn more about each other and themselves.

I can see the movie’s idea of romance, but it fails the execution. Both Sachin and Elisa share literally one scene and half a date before they start kissing and become a couple. This is an 83 minute long movie, and our main characters are together after like 5 minutes of screen time! You could argue that they are supposed to be “destined lovers”, but this doesn’t excuse the lack of character development. We need to see why they are such a good match for each other. Compare this to Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. Both Taki and Mitsuha are separated by time and are initially annoyed at the others’ habits (Taki with Mitsuha’s careless spending and Mitsuha with Taki touching her breasts). But throughout the film’s runtime, this annoyance gradually evolves into understanding and love.

Now let’s talk about the acting. Picture a love child between Tommy Wiseau’s The Room and James Nguyen’s Birdemic with Neil Breen acting as the midwife. Got a good idea? The acting borders from somewhat passable to some of the worst line delivery I’ve heard since Samurai Cop. Nearly every other lines sounds like the actors were just reading off a script or going off of rote memorization. You hardly get the sense that they’re acting. The only good actor is Anmol Mishra as Sachin. You get the sense that he’s trying to portray a love struck, yet naïve young man. Yet it’s not hard to say this when the majority of the cast feels about as flat as my sense of humor. And that’s saying something. Not to mention that we don’t really care for any of the characters and their plights (which mostly stem from poor communication).

The acting isn’t helped by the bland and directionless dialogue. In a movie, every scene needs to push the story forward. Because of this, dialogue doesn’t always need to sound natural. You can see this with movies such as The Dark Knight. But this movie suffers from the same problem as Jupiter Ascending: I have no idea what just happened after every other scene. Characters will say things that either just don’t make a lick of sense or sound so inappropriately bizarre that you’re left wondering if they’re aliens trying to assimilate through meme culture. Now, there are some decent jokes sprinkled throughout the film. But they fall flat due to the (no pun intended) flat line delivery.

But if you think that’s egregious enough, the film suffers from some basic editing problems. Scenes will either end abruptly or transition to nearly unrelated scenes. While it’s nowhere near as bad as what Jay Sun did in Switch, it’s not much better. There are even lines where they forget to ADR. For example, during one scene where Sachin calls a friend, Sachin’s mouth moves; but no words come out of it. His friend, on the other hand, replies as if he heard everything Sachin said. Can his friend read lips through a phone? Now THAT is a superpower I’d like to have. But this doesn’t happen once, it makes a reemergence during the film’s climax! How can you miss it twice?

The only element this movie has in its favor is the dance sequences. I won’t lie, they are entertaining and even gorgeous to watch. I was impressed with how many dance styles the film incorporates. From waltz, to interpretive, to salsa. And every cast member either has a background in dance, theater or gymnastics. They perfectly understand the choreography and how to even make it their own. This is especially the case during the film’s third act. However, this athletic focus shifts away from the aforementioned areas that desperately needed addressing. Just because a movie has beautiful dance choreography doesn’t make it good.

I know I’ve been pretty critical about this movie. And I don’t want to dissuade Anmol Mishra from making future films. Romancing Sydney has some decent ideas of finding love and connection along with creative cinematography to help bring them to life. And a wise man once said: “ideas are bulletproof.” However, they still need strong execution. I felt that this movie was made to only showcase its performers’ athletic prowess. Which leaves the movie feeling less like Before Sunrise and more like The Bodyguard (minus Whitney Houston’s powerhouse vocals). If that’s up your alley, then you might enjoy Romancing Sydney. But if not, just watch Before Sunrise.