Writer: Moe Jelline (Screenplay)
Starring: Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Odette Annable, Victor Garber, Betty White, James Wolk
Plot: When a young woman realizes her brother is about to marry the girl who bullied her in high school, she sets out to expose the fiancée’s true colors.
Tagline – What doesn’t kill you… is going to marry your brother.
Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Funny Comedy
Story: You Again starts when former bullied high school student, turned PR superstar Marni (Bell) is returning home for her brother’s wedding, she learns that the woman Will (Wolk) is marrying is the woman who bullied her Joanna (Annable).
When Marni returns she is put through the nightmare memories of high school, while Joanna is a complete different woman, things only become worse, when Marni’s mom Gail (Curtis) was best friends with Joanna’s successful Aunt Ramona (Weaver) even if things ended badly at school. Can the two women put their pasts behind them before the wedding or will their feelings cause problems for Will’s big day.
Thoughts on You Again
Characters – Marni was bullied through the high school, even with her sports star brother helped her focus on her future. Marni would go onto become a big success in the PR world, just getting a new promotion. When she returns home for brother’s wedding she comes face to face with the bully from high school who is marrying her brother. She is trying to get a simple apology, but when she can’t get that she wants to get one over on Joanna. Joanna is the woman Will is marrying, she was the popular girl at high school that bullied Marni, after high school she went through a change become a nursing giving back to the community. She does hint that she knows who Marni is from her past, but also plays dumb on knowing too. Gail is Marni’s mother who is excited to see her son get married, her daughter getting a promotion, but when an old rival turns out to be related to Joanna, she gets just as held back in the past as Marni. Ramona is the Aunt of Joanna’s that has risen to become one of most successful women in the world.
Performances – Kristen Bell in the leading role is great fun, she has the look that can fit both sides of her character along with the comic timing needed. Odette Annable is great too because she uses the beauty behind her character to be the now innocent feeling girl. Seeing two of the biggest icons in female cinema in Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis going to battle is great to see to because they have always felt like they could have gone back and forth.
Story – The story shows how one woman who turned her life around after years of high school bullying, must return to face her bully before she marries her brother. This story does show us how high school action will always be ones that can affect people for the rest of their lives, it is something you can never change which ever side you are on it. It also shows how once you have learnt to overcome you can be a success even if part of you wants to get back at the person that made you suffer. The bully themselves has to live with the fact that they were awful in high school and that they should learn from their action in life, needing to change who they were. This is handled well because both the characters have the problems with what happened at high school. Add in the generation before having the same issues, we get to see how it will continue through affect people in their lives. The important side of this does show how you can turn things around and put things back on track.
Comedy/Romance – The comedy comes mostly in the things that happen to Marni as she tries to get her revenge, it does make you laugh and Bell’s timing does help make it better. The romance does take the backburner as it is about the bully being in love the brother.
Settings – The film does the bring the person back to their home town settings, each one brings back a memory, a moment of importance, which does also come through to make it relatable for the audience.
Scene of the Movie – The dinner.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Everyone does seem to have upper class jobs.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun rom com, it deals with the issues high school can offer, while getting laughs along the way.
Overall: Comedy that shines.
Rating