Arroba Amor (@amor) Review: Swiping Left

While the film has charming performances, Arroba Amor (@amor) does not challenge the viewer’s perspective on the modern dating scene and intimacy.

Who knows what could happen? I know the audience does, as each narrative beat is more than predictable. But the joy that’s to be had with rom-coms – especially ones that follow the genre guidelines through and through – comes from the charming cast, the little twists in the latter half of the story, and a witty script. Unfortunately, Arroba Amor has only one of those features, which does not suffice. 

Yulianna (Álvarez), or Yuli for short, is working herself to death. She only lives to work. Her lies revolve around deals to fund her films, partnerships to get the best crew possible, and babysitting the diva director at the helm of her current project, Jose Juan Juan (José Eugenio Hernández). But those are not her only struggles. During a checkup, Dr. Regalado (Sunshine Logroño) reveals to Yuli that she has HPV, which provokes cancerous cells in the womb. He also states that if she wants to be a mother, Yuli has two years before she’d need to have a hysterectomy. This causes Yuli to ponder her future as a mother. She wonders if she should try having children before it is too late. 

As a means to have a “detox” from her life in Puerto Rico and try to find herself again, and perhaps a partner, Yuli heads to Spain on a two-month trip, where she learns the ups and downs of modern-day dating and the meaning of human connection and pure intimacy. Some of the men she dates are looking for a one-night-stand, like Xavier, or as his username on the dating apps says, Bizcochito. Others are ignorant, selfish, and not Yuli’s type. Will she ever find love? Is her one true love overseas or right back in Puerto Rico? This is up to Yuli to find out, one date at a time – coffee after coffee, tapas after tapas. 

There are many sweet moments in Arroba Amor, which mainly come from the interactions between Yuli and local barkeep Anxo (Xúlio Abonjo), the witty character that gives advice and helps the rom-com’s protagonist to heal. Yuli and Anxo provide the film with enough sweetness and charm to entertain as long as they are on screen. Their conversations may use subgenre’s tropes as a guide, with every scene beginning and ending as expected. But that does not diminish these two actors’ work and how they charm the pants off the viewer. Unfortunately, Arroba Amor lacks that feeling in the moments that do not involve the two, as the other characters have little personality or charisma. The supporting cast around Alvarez and Abonjo is one-note; they don’t do anything to distance themselves from each other, apart from a few differences in speech, some implementing Spanglish. 

This tends to happen with many local productions, where the focus is only on the main character, and the rest of them are left to the side. The supporting cast is only there for comedic relief, and that, by itself, isn’t a bad thing. What happens is that the lines fed to them are very weak and unfunny, which leaves the actors with little to do. Modern Puerto Rican cinema often embraces comedy to reflect the island’s everyday experiences, sometimes including the ripples caused by unjust government parties and colonization. Arroba Amor steers clear from this political commentary. 

Still, it explores the culture and lifestyle through the lens of today’s dating scene, particularly Yuli’s perspective as a Puerto Rican woman navigating a culture alien to her. On paper, this concept holds promise. However, in execution, it falls short because of Mullen’s inability to play with the rom-com tropes and her reliance on comedic quips – fleeting, monotonal interactions instead of a more profound emotional impact on Yuli’s journey – rather than providing an insightful take on romance and self-discovery. Ironically, the marketing material for Arroba Amor delves deeper into the modern dating scene than Mullen does in the film’s ninety-three minutes.

In theaters across Puerto Rico, when the film was released people could interact with its posters by putting post-it notes that described their perfect match or what they were looking for in a relationship. My friends and I were curious about what people wrote, and we saw people having fun with this idea, naming their celebrity crushes or saying they wanted nothing serious. On the other hand, some were looking for something more substantial, a more intimate relationship; some were even brave enough to write their phone numbers on the note. It was like a Tinder mood board, summarizing what you would find in a dating app. For me, this brilliant marketing tactic tells you a lot about our yearning for connection, especially in a post-pandemic world. It reflects the diverse perspectives on modern love and how dating has become a public conversation that people are eager to engage in beyond the confines of a screen. 

Moviegoers turn into participants in this conversation; the film’s interactive campaign turns into a social experiment that underscores the excitement and vulnerability of putting oneself out there. Meanwhile, Arroba Amor has paper-thin notions about love, dating, and human connection. There is some truth behind some of the interactions Yuli has during the film, as some or many of us have experienced such bad or uninteresting dates. But that is an easy thing to depict. If what Arroba Amor prompts on paper and in its marketing campaign matches the execution, Yuli and her experiences would be emotionally complex, with Mullen tapping into the miscommunication and unspoken expectations of romance. The lighthearted premise makes Mullen’s debut an easy watch but lacks the depth necessary to leave a lasting impression. 

Arroba Amor (@amor) was released in Puerto Rican cinemas on March 6, 2025. The US, UK and international release date is TBA.