Ashton Kutcher in Your Place or Mine – Picture: Netflix
The new romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, your place or minenow it’s streaming, but should i give it a watch?
May 11, 2018. The day Netflix brought back the romantic comedy.
Like it or not, the 2018 release of The Kissing Booth sparked a rather impressive run of successful rom-coms for young and old in a genre that had been relatively dormant in theaters for some time.
The kissing booth. Set it up. To all the boys I’ve loved before. The princess switch.
They were all released that year, and three of those four spawned multiple sequels (sadly, Set it up it was so good they couldn’t do it more than once *wink*).
The Perfect Date, Something Great, & Always Be My Maybe would soon follow, cementing Netflix as the go-to studio for these types of stories.
Now, it is 2023 and sadly the well has started to run dry. All of their franchises have ended. The efforts of the likes of Rachel Leigh Cook and Lindsay Lohan didn’t set the world on fire. Hope for another resurgence has begun to fade.
Perhaps feeling the pressure to return to its former glory, Netflix pulled out the big guns this weekend with the release of its latest rom-com, your place or minewith an all-star cast headlined by genre elites Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama) and Ashton Kutcher (Without conditions, much like love).
The film focuses on the long friendship of Debbie (Witherspoon) and Peter (Kutcher), as their one-night stand 20 years ago have now become best friends, even as they now live on opposite coasts.
Balancing life as a working single mother of a teenager allergic to just about everything, Debbie finally does something for herself as she plans a trip to New York City to further her education and see her best friend Peter in the process.
Image: Netflix
When his babysitting fails, Peter takes responsibility and flies across the country to take care of young Jack. Although initially reluctant, Debbie accepts Peter’s offer and stays at her house. While staying at each other’s houses, they open up to new experiences and learn some secrets about each other that could change their relationship forever.
Written and directed by veteran Aline Brosh McKenna (27 Dresses, The Devil Wears Prada), your place or mine is, in a way, a throwback to the genre’s classics from the late ’90s/2000s with familiar tropes that may make longtime Witherspoon & Kutcher fans revel in those comforts.
However, the movie seems overwritten and overcomplicated at every turn. With a dizzying amount of dialogue and exposition, the feeling I got at the end of the film was a relief as we finally got what we thought we were going to do all along, but had to drag ourselves through so many layers of unnecessary plot and characters. what do you have. submit to the film for its conclusion.
Aline Brosh McKenna is a recognized admirer of the two-handed classic romantic tales of his girl friday to You’ve got mail. Still, while a marquee duo runs their movie, the pairing of Witherspoon and Kutcher spend more time talking on the phone or in flashback than face-to-face moments building chemistry. By the time we got to see them together in person, we grew sick of their separate story, which feels like an absolute steal considering the talent we came to see.
We have no idea why they are such good friends, let alone may they be destined for anything else. They hook up, he declares he’s an «unknown piece of shit» she shouldn’t be dating, and then the movie «yadda yaddas» brings them to the present without explaining how a commitment-phobic runaway endeared himself enough to her a one-night stand they become the best of «everyday talk» friends.
Our sanity in this film is the generosity of charming actors and sets. While playing relatively thin and predictable characters, Witherspoon and Kutcher put their experience in the genre to good use by smiling and endearing us with their boy/girl-next-door looks and energy, even in middle age (annoying as a current 40 years). ). While we don’t get much of the Los Angeles experience, we get plenty of New York City brilliance in its bridges, parks, and exquisite nightlife. While not the well-designed opulence of Nancy Myers movie houses, I could absolutely see myself living in Peter’s posh apartment or Debbie’s lovely, bright Los Angeles home.
Comedian/actress Tig Notaro’s always welcome laid-back sarcasm and «Grey’s Anatomy» star Jesse Williams’ wildly unfair looks also come in handy in the film, but unfortunately, can’t overcome the stifling, meandering nature of the script.
General, your place or mine It gave us older millennials, two of our biggest movie stars, a return to the genre and medium we love to see them in after years of television work. Still, the script finds itself in a tragic zone of too much plot and not enough chemistry and character development to succeed at the level these stars and their fans deserve.
Look your place or mine on Netflix if you like:
- The holidays
- Without conditions
- crazy ex-girlfriend
- home again
MVP of your place or mine
Ashton Kutcher as Peter and Wesley Kimmel as Jack
While the romantic plot may not always fit into this movie, the attempts at temporary paternity for Kutcher’s Peter over Kimmel’s Jack could be quite successful and shocking at times. Once Peter stops trying to «rebrand» Jack’s image with his friends at school and begins to get to the heart of Jack’s core issues, the film shows real growth for both characters and provides emotional impulses that they are missing from most of the main story. .
PLAY, PAUSE OR STOP?
PAUSE.
It’s great to see Reese and Ashton take on movie roles again, but let’s hope for a stronger, more cohesive script next time.