About Fate (2022)

About Fate is the kind of rom-com that sneaks up on you: it wears a familiar setup like a cozy sweater, then wins you over with genuinely likable leads and a sweet, lightly fizzy sense of timing. Emma Roberts and Thomas Mann make the coincidences feel less like a gimmick and more like a gentle nudge from the universe, with Mann’s decency and awkward charm giving the movie a surprisingly warm center. The vibe is playful and holiday-adjacent without drowning in syrup, built on brisk banter, small humiliations, and the quiet relief of being seen by the right person at the wrong time. It’s not reinventing the genre and the premise is undeniably “movie logic,” but if you’re on the fence and want something funny, pleasant, and easy to root for on a winter night, this one delivers.

About Fate is trying to be a breezy, New Year’s Eve rom-com about two decent people getting nudged together by a string of “can you believe this?” coincidences, and it does have a light, easygoing charm when it stops to let the leads banter. The problem is it’s so determined to hit every familiar beat that you can practically see the checklist, with thin character work and a few broad, old-school relationship stereotypes doing a lot of heavy lifting. It also looks and feels a bit bargain-bin, which makes the big romantic moments land softer than they should. If you want something surprising, emotionally sharp, or even just polished, skip it; if you’re happy with a predictable, low-stakes comfort watch and you like Emma Roberts in this mode, it’ll do the job.