I Want You Back is a romcom about two people - Peter(Charlie Day) and Emma(Jenny Slate)- who are broken up with by their respective partners- Anne(Gina Rodriguez) and Noah(Scott Eastwood)- meet in the stairwell of the office building in which they both work while in morning. They hatch a plan to help each other break up their ex's new relationships in order to get back together with them. They become friends and maybe more!
Day and Slate give absolutely everything they have to elevate the predictable, rote plot, and really soar with the handful of scenes that actually have some comedic potential. They play off each other well but lack the necessary romantic chemistry to make that part of the story really pop. Rodriguez and her pretentious drama teacher boyfriend Logan(played by Manny Jacinto) are fun but underutilized. Eastwood again shows Hollywood nepotism is alive and well as his dead eyes and void of screen presence make most of his scenes hit like a dose of anesthetic(but you get to see his butt, cheeky!). All in all the issue isn't the cast it's the script and cookie-cutter direction.
Visually the movie is boring and undergrad film school basic. The score negligible, the set and costume design bland. Perhaps this is the intent. Amazon attempting to compete with Netflix's factory line of rom coms. Either way the production is uninteresting. The script borrows from movies we have not only seen before but seen many times before and the behavior of it's two protagonist occasionally crosses into pathological without comment or seeming awareness. Another issue with the whole conceit is that it doesn't allow Day and Slate to share much screen time together, hamstringing their ability in conveying or developing the much necessary rom part of the romcom.
A Hallmark Channel level narrative and aesthetic with a decent cast.
Currently streaming on Amazon.
Don't See It.
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