Starring: Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Scott Eastwood, Manny Jacinto, Gina Rodriguez, and Pete Davidson.
Directed By: Jason Orlee
Where I Watched It: Amazon
English Audio Description Available?: Yes
The Plot: Two recently dumped individuals (Day and Slate) team up to try and break up their ex-partners from their new respective relationships. Of course, this is a romcom, so you know what happens… right?
What Works: A fairly formulaic romantic comedy is given a charming cast that elevates it to a non-shitty level. Nowadays, with streaming, we get so many half assed attempts at this genre, that when one is competently put together, it seems like a win for the whole genre. Honestly, i don’t know if it’s even possible in this product driven age to produce the next Pretty Woman, or even Sweet Home Alabama, but at least this is watchable.
Most of what makes this work is that the film relies heavily on Charlie Day’s goofy charm, as he very much is the kind of person you would expect him to be in this film. In many ways, it’s a sad contrast to Jenny Slate, who is far funnier than any of the material given to her, but she’s trying to be an adorkable female lead, and not her usual brand of comedy. This is her attempt at proving she could be the next Reese Witherspoon if needed, but it just feels like they toned her down.
Amy Schumer in Trainwreck was allowed all of her R rated glory, and this film is rated R, so it’s still confusing why they thought Slate needed to reign it in. But at least Charlie Day got to do his thing?
It’s kind of charming as a film, sometimes funny, but most of it has to do with the cast that doesn’t suck, and a complete commitment to doing an entire sequence from Little Shop of Horrors. That could have just been a cut, but they did the whole damn song. And it was great.
What Doesn’t Work: Somehow, it still feels unremarkable. Like, it’s good enough to watch in the moment, but I won’t remember having watched this 3-5 years from now, and certainly in 10 years I’ll forget who was in this, or what it was about. It makes no lasting impression, and strives really hard to just not be total shit, which it is not.Unmemorable? Sure. But bad? No.
It’s far too long, by the way. holy shit, this film is a two hour straight-to-Amazon romantic comedy. This should be at least 15 minutes shorter. there’s no reason for a film in this genre to run the full two hours.
But like I said, it’s good enough.
The Blind Perspective: It’s a romantic comedy with audio description. The plot isn’t hard to follow. The narrator is sufficient. The humor and the jokes are obvious and explained. Really, I have no problems here.
Final Thoughts: Marry me was better, but this is still way better than the other Amazon romcom this year, Book of Love. A charming cast elevates a generic plot, one you could watch the first ten minutes and the last ten, and feel like you didn’t miss anything, and that was always going to be the ending to this film. It’s disturbingly predictable. I almost feel like I wrote the script.
Final Grade: C+
