Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
After his impetuous musician girlfriend, Samantha, dies in an accident shortly after they had a fight (and nearly broke up), Ian Wyndham, a grief-stricken British businessman living in London gets a chance to relive the day all over again, in the hope of changing the events that led up to her getting killed.
If Only is a competent but largely derivative romantic fantasy that borrows heavily from the Groundhog Day/time-loop premise without adding much originality. The plot is emotionally functional and delivers on its tearjerker promise, though it follows a very predictable arc. Acting from Jennifer Love Hewitt and Paul Nicholls is serviceable but unremarkable. Cinematography is workmanlike London location shooting without distinctive visual flair. Novelty is low given how closely it treads familiar territory. The ending, while emotionally manipulative, lands with reasonable impact for the genre.