Well, after spending the last several reviews neck-deep in the weirder sides of genre cinema, I figure it’s about time to wind things down a bit. Time to get into something a little simpler, a little more straight-forward and, truth be told, a little less intensive when it comes to writing about it. I mean, while I have all the respect for filmmakers that care enough about their audiences to try and challenge them, there is still a place in the world for breezy and cheery rom-coms like this.
Ol Parker, after managing a quite surprising hit with the Mamma Mia sequel, wanted to keep going with bringing back the more fluffy rom-coms of the 2000s which… yeah, I’ve ragged on the formulas that came from those quite a bit on here, but considering how miserable the world has been the last several years, wanting to go back to more pleasant times isn’t that bad an idea. I mean, even with the lamer comedies out there, there’s something to be said about that communal sense of fun that comes out of having a nice giggle together in a crowded cinema. It helps to have a film worth giggling over, of course, which is why I’m very thankful that Ol Parker has delivered another modest winner.
The cast here is… unexpected. They all do very well with the material, but for a comedy, the biggest laughs came from everyone except the two leads. Clooney and Roberts have a lot of potential for chuckles with their Much Ado About Nothing-lite sniping at each other, but… I dunno, maybe it’s because I grew up on Married With Children, which went way harder on the jabs than Ol Parker would ever be comfortable with, but it just doesn’t register that strongly. Meanwhile, Geneviéve Lemon’s bit part as a woman who sits between them on a plane got some major reactions, and Lucas Bravo might be one of the best ‘disposable’ love interests I’ve seen in years because he plays the awkwardness that well.
Even beyond the comedy, this has some real chops. Kaitlyn Dever and Billie Lourd of Booksmart fame team up again, with Dever as the embodiment of true love and Lourd as her down-to-earth best friend. And then there’s Maxime Bouttier as Dever’s fiancée who… this could just be because I still have After Ever Happy on the brain, but he is a serious catch. Charming, funny, aware of his surroundings, forthright but without being a dick about it; for wish-fulfilment, this hits right on the sweet spot.
Actually, that describes most of this film. While it’s really not anything that groundbreaking in terms of narrative, and it hinges on a lot of tired concepts (another case of the trailer showing the entire film), but credit to Ol Parker for knowing how to play them. There’s a definite love coming through for this kind of romantic fluff, rather than just playing into nostalgia, and that gets followed through on in how he thankfully leaves behind the more annoying clichés.
The characters, as thin as they are, still react like actual people, Bouttier’s Gede especially, and their relationships avoid having mild disagreements resulting in everything that they’ve been through up to then being thrown out the window as a result. The drama is still here, and well-delivered, but it’s not so overblown as to become ridiculous. It acknowledges that the cliches are part of the fun… but remembers to only stick to the ones that actually are fun.
And in that, I find myself with a decent amount of respect for what Ol Parker has done here. It’s nothing spectacular, and outside of this review, I’m unlikely to remember much about it, but considering I went into this specifically for something lightweight and fun, he delivered exactly that. Where the respect comes in is with how, unlike a few too many others trying to keep the rom-com alive in the modern age, he doesn’t use its disposability as an excuse to not bother trying; the man clearly gives a damn about what his audience is devoting their hard-earned money and free time to, which is always welcome around here.
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