My Fault: London is acceptably imperfect, yet cheesily entertaining. Mercedes Ron’s much-adapted book series competes with Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us series for having the most disturbing writing and awful plotlines. The original Spanish version of Mea Culpa (My Fault) stars Noah (Nicole Wallace), a seventeen-year-old girl who must move in with her new stepfather and brother, Nick (Gabriel Guevara), after her mother marries into wealth. Begrudgingly, she has no choice but to accept her fate, and naturally, she and Nick despise each other, resulting in plenty of cringeworthy dialogue and sexual tension to endure.
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The entire step-sibling romance arc is taboo, yet, ironically, it’s not even the worst aspect of the movie. As mentioned, Noah is 17, while Nick is 22, rendering the film utterly unwatchable and problematic. There is no reason for Noah to be a minor, and it’s hard to sit through the multitude of creepy, sexual subliminal reminders of her almost being of age.
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My Fault: London fixes this problematic dynamic by aging Noah (Asha Banks) to 18 and Nick (Matthew Broome) to 19. They’re still very young, especially considering the book and film’s hypersexual, drug-induced, violent themes, but it’s more acceptable.
The story’s pacing in this English remake of the 2023 Spanish drama is better, as the characters are likable, supportive, and fun. Not once did Nick in the London version coerce Noah to do anything; in fact, we watched him gradually fall for her respectfully and allowed her to decide the pacing of their dynamic. The film still follows Nick to be a bad boy who gets wrapped up in serious situations, but this version uses this character detail as a reminder that he’s still a kid who makes mistakes and is worthy of grace.
It’s also quite amusing to see queer people in the background kissing and being intimate while there are no queer main or supporting characters. We dislike how heterosexual romances often use the queer community as background filler to appear diverse and avoid accountability.
However, it only reaffirms how lazy and disappointing the industry is, because if we can change ages—especially given how essential that aspect was to the source material—we feel that incorporating proper queer representation should be easy as well.
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