Love is a broad, deep and many-layered subject. We all have our own opinions and experiences, and it’s an ambitious topic in any medium, let alone a short film. But despite its short run-time, 96 WAYS TO SAY I LOVE YOU has a lot to say, and manages get its point across in a brief but compelling story that swings wildly between the sad, the amusing and the downright adorable.

The main narrative follows youngsters Al and Olive and their respective journeys towards saying “I Love You”. However, the story is interspersed with inputs from different couples in evidently very different relationships.

“The film is a love letter to all those people worried about saying it.”

Many of these secondary characters are exceptionally well-observed: Nina Sosanya delivers a fearsome performance as Lily, the acid-tongued spouse of the nervous Mark (played by David Tennant). “It’s a brain system, isn’t it,” says Lily conversationally. “Albeit a powerful one.” It’s one such point of view the film puts across, throwing ideas out that aren’t intended to make a statement so much as they’re intended to get us thinking about our own opinions. “[Love] has to be subjective.” says director Daisy Aitkens, in her interview with Take One. “I know I’ve listened to friends talk about it in a way I’ve never lived through. [The film] is a love letter to all those people worried about saying it.”

It’s Al and Olive, portrayed by the talented and eminently sweet Joel Fry and Georgia Tennant, who serve as the audience’s avatars. They play out our wildest hopes and our worst fears as the other  characters offer unwitting commentary on their exploits. It’s a masterful blend with only one jarring note: the two friends of Al and Olive serve as useful devil’s advocates from a narrative standpoint, voicing the irrational but somehow pertinent fears we all feel. However, their input as friends is limited to simply obnoxiously opposing the notion of saying “I Love You” rather than offering any useful advice, and one can’t help but wonder why the likeable lead characters would bother befriending such shallow misanthropes.

96 WAYS TO SAY I LOVE YOU tackles a deep topic with humour and sincerity. Its occasional cynicism is gently handled, and it mixes just enough brutal realism to make it relatable with just enough hope and optimism to keep you smiling until the end.