Amazon Prime’s new romantic comedy Picture This revolves around Pia (Simone Ashley), who is predicted to meet her true love after her next five dates, only for her ex-boyfriend Charlie (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin) to return to her life, causing twists and turns and a whole lot of comical chaos.
Oh, surprise surprise – another film featuring the romance between a brown girl/white boy duo, with a bunch of cheesy Indian-themed jokes and a westernised female lead who dreads culture. Did Amazon Prime really think that they could just make another film about the fiery chemistry between a sassy brown girl who falls in love with a gorgeous white boy with dreamy blue eyes and a cute smile, and think that I’d just sit there and watch it while hysterically giggling and kicking my feet?
Because they were right. I did.
It’s been a while since I've hysterically giggled and kicked my feet at the same time. Amazon Prime surely must have known this, because why else would they have decided to give me my dosage of cute romcoms exactly when I needed it?
Before I watched Picture This, I hadn't seen Simone Ashley in anything else other than in Bridgerton, playing the iconic Kate Sharma. And it’s also my first Hero Fiennes Tiffin film since I saw him playing a mini Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. So seeing a viscountess and a small dark lord together was not a combination I was expecting to see in my next movie night, but the excitement still remained.
I went through other reviews and most of them said the same thing – it’s simple, predictable, flimsy, vanilla. I agree with all that, but here's the twist, I think it’s a good thing. Every romantic comedy writer these days tries very hard to make complex and creative stories that will leave you gobsmacked at how original their plot is. It’s gotten to the point where the film industry is now steering away from the simple and nostalgic stories that we love so dearly from the 2000s like Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Bend It Like Beckham. Although Picture This isn't precisely a teen film, it still doesn't require too much thought and just focuses on feeling, which is something we need from time to time.
But because romcoms nowadays are adamant on being different and fighting cliches, this made the overall feel and simplicity of Picture This much more significant in 2025. It brought back the idea of the “feel-good film” for me, and I’m here for it. It was a predictable story, but maybe that's what I enjoyed about it, as the purpose was to unleash the young “girly girls” in us. There are enough films that are trying to be complex and clever. Do we really have to make cutesy girly films that are there for the butterflies rather than the hard-hitting plots extinct? Not on my watch.
Watching this film as a South Asian made me feel warm, fuzzy and giddy inside, and the best thing about it was the fresh cultural perspective and representation that it provided. Being a South Asian woman who adores acting and films, I felt seen. I loved the feeling of seeing a female lead on the screen that looks similar to me and is relatable to me in their own way. In an industry where women who are white are mainly picked for lead roles, for me seeing a brown woman as a beautiful, loved and admired main character gave me a ray of hope that there will be more representation for me. Picture This allowed me to feel that main character energy and the cutesy romance that comes with it too, just the way I am. 
Simone Ashley plays the lead role in Picture This
(Credit: Amazon Prime Video)
In terms of acting, as soon as I saw Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s performance, I knew that people would be quick to measure Hero’s acting quality by comparing it to his famous and successful uncles Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes. Hero’s acting wasn’t as dramatised in the film, but to me it seemed natural and realistic. It’s how you’d expect an average British boy to communicate with a girl he’s into through flirty banter, and his acting gave me a real human feel. Not every actor needs to do an over-the-top performance to be good, as they’re not in a pantomime. If anything, Hero’s performance gave me that giddy feeling inside as though it was a real life encounter with him – something romcoms love to do. Picture This did that perfectly.
Overall, the film definitely has the wholesome elements from a cute teen romance book you don't want to put down because it makes your tummy flutter that much. The twisted comedy and clumsy banter made me chuckle more than I expected to and it definitely rekindled my forgotten love for nostalgic and cutesy romantic comedies. It was worth the hour and a half I spent scoffing popcorn and staring at Hero Fiennes Tiffin’s beautiful face. I’d watch it again just to stare at him for even longer, and I’m not even ashamed of it.
Picture This is out now on Amazon Prime.
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