In this edgy comedy, Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell look like the perfect couple, but after an amazing first date something happens that turns their fiery hot attraction ice cold--until they find themselves thrust together at a destination wedding in Australia. So, they do what any two mature adults would do: pretend to be a couple. Will this pretense bring them together, or drive them even farther apart?
Others to round out the cast are Alexandra Shipp as Claudia, Gata as Pete, Hadley Robinson as Halle, Michelle Hurd as Carol, Dermot Mulroney as Leo, Darren Barnet as Jonathan, Rachel Griffiths as Innie, Joe Davidson as Beau and Josh Bonello as Skyler.
This was directed effectively by Will Gluck ("Fired Up!" '09, "Easy A" '10, "Friends with Benefits" '11, "Iceland" (TV movie) '11, "Annie" '14, "Peter Rabbit" '18, "How May We Hate You" '18, "Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway" '21) plus TV and a music video. This filmmaker is certainly a consistent one in that he doesn't venture too far out of his comfort zone and that could be a negative or a positive. At least he knows where he can best rely on and that's why this film turned out as well as can be expected. His sequencing is formulaic, however with romcoms, there's really only a formulaic format that works. If you light the genre this director typically crafts, his "Jackpot" is in pre production. It was written by Ilana Wolpert (TV) and Will Gluck ("Fired Up!" '09, "Friends with Benefits" '11,"Annie" '14,"Angry Angel" (TV movie) '17,"Peter Rabbit" '18, "Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway" '21), based on a story by Iiana Wolpert. I not sure why Wolpert received first billing here since she has no feature film experience whereas Gluck does, except that the reasoning could be that the film is based on her story or idea, so it's her 'baby' essentially. As romcoms go, this was probably written as well as the vast majority of romcom are written. It is predictable, not very funny, considering it's a comedy, and even though the idea is somewhat an original idea, the way the story was handled was not. Let's see: boy meets girl, girl meets boy, they go on a first date, communications become miscrossed, they part as they assume the other doesn't want anything to do with the other, then they get back together again, then something else happens and they're back at square one again, then the truth comes out and they make up and all live happily ever after. Sound familiar? This format happens in most of the romcoms and it just gets old. Also, there were a couple of places that obtained continuity issues as well, so it was difficult, at times, to follow the sequencing of the film. Certainly, with Gluck's next film, "The Aristocats" which is now in pre production, hopefully we will be shown a much better film, not that this film was a total wash. There were some interesting scenes, unfortunately not enough to carry the film. The two actors both Sweeney and Powell gave it their all, but with all that was going on, they couldn't save it. The reason this was considered 'edgy' is because most romcoms are typically rated PG-13, however, this being rated R, there were many more four-letter words, which weren't needed and other sexually gratuitous short scenes that also were not needed. I suspect the filmmakers are attempting to win over a younger demographic,
Definitely if you like romcoms, you'll love this, however if a romcom is tough, on a good day, to get through, you might want to pass on this or wait for Netflix. Will Gluck is typically a better writer then what came out of this, but I'm not sure what happened. Bad day at the laptop? Not sure, but suffice to say, I've seen better romcoms, but I've also seen worse.
Out of 4 Stars: 2 Rated: R 103mins.
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