Aussie rom-com fails to inspire

Five Blind Dates is a romantic comedy co-written by lead actress Shuang Hu, who has previously been seen on SBS comedy The Family Law.

And while it's great to see Amazon investing in local content, especially content featuring a demographic that is underrepresented in the Australian scripted media landscape, this is not quite the winner of a film we were hoping for.

Five Blind Dates follows Lia Ling (Hu), a 20-something single woman whose traditional Chinese tea shop in Sydney is rapidly failing (not surprising given the Harbourside location - rent must be astronomical!) and her family wants her to return to Townsville and find a husband.

When she heads to her hometown for her sister's engagement party, a fortune teller informs her that she will find her soulmate within her next five dates, and this will help her business succeed. But she must find this mystery guy before the wedding, which is only two months away. So, naturally, it is decided that Lia's mum, dad, sister and bestie will all pick out dates for her to go one.

There's the wealthy businessman who's looking for something non-traditional, the Chinese school teacher who works with Lia's mum, the spiritual yoga master, and Lia's ex, who didn't move to Sydney with her. It's quite unclear for a while who the fifth date is, but when it's revealed it's actually kind of sweet, if nonsensical.

There are some moments that might elicit a light chuckle, but for the most part the script is not very funny. What's worse, is that a lot of it doesn't make logical sense.

The engagement party and wedding are being held in Townsville, where everyone except Lia and her best friend/employee reside, but the hens night and dress fitting take place in Sydney, just so they're close to our protagonist? Not to mention the fact that one of her dates, who lives and works in Townsville, just casually pops up so they can go out in Sydney, with no explanation as to why he's there.

A lot of the acting is pretty sub-par, but Hu is alright in the lead, and has some nice comic timing. In quite a casting coup, director Shawn Seet (Underbelly, Barons) and co secured prolific actor Tzi Ma (Rush Hour, The Quiet American, Arrival) to play Lia's father, though he doesn't have a very big part. Rob Collins (RFDS, Mystery Road) and Desmond Chiam (Joy Ride, Falcon and the Winter Soldier) are also in the mix, but it is Yoson An (Mulan, Plane) who is probably most well known, and delivers the best performance in the film. An provides layers when his character doesn't even seem to have them and works his best to add some spark despite a severe lack of chemistry Hu is markedly a level above most of his castmates.

There's little else the film has to recommend it, barring the expected gratuitous use of Sydney Harbour shots which, as cliche as they might be, still make the film look better. And props to the music director for selecting Vanessa Amorosi's classic hit Absolutely Everybody for the soundtrack so at least the audience had something to cheer about.