Directed By Jason Orley

Starring – Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Scott Eastwood

The Plot – Newly dumped thirty-somethings Peter (Day) and Emma (Slate) team up to sabotage their exes’ new relationships and win them back for good.

Rated R for adult language, sexual material, some drug use and partial nudity

i want you back trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

In only his second directing effort, Orley has managed to do what some would say is the impossible, in that he has invoked a freshly unique perspective on the ages old genre of romantic comedies and ridded them of the abundance of tropes and predictable footnotes that ties so many of these films together. This makes “I Want You Back” an anti-romance film of sorts, in that it doesn’t articulate the perfection or seamlessness of love that a majority of other films tries to attempt, and instead focuses on the honesty of awkwardness and vulnerability that humiliates all of us to such shape-shifting levels. This is certainly the case with the structure of the story itself, which not only stacks these unique relationships intertwining to cement something inevitably catastrophic to each of their dynamics, but also gives the script no shortage of depth and freedom that balances the ability to drift and divert between so many respective arcs along the way to its two-hour run time. Speaking of balance, screenwriters Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger take pride in both the romantic and the comedic elements of this hybrid subgenre, working each into the interactions of this film authentically in a way that is enriched with realism, all the while preserving something that is sweetly charming and sentimentally endearing to the experience. The humor is never unnecessarily raunchy nor defamatory despite the aspect of its cherished R-rating, and the romance is guided by supposedly antagonist characters who consistently play against type to live in this hearty shade of grey that isn’t always easy to classify as the one responsible for the previous break-up. This warmth of charm is only enhanced by the classical soundtrack of classic crooning favorites featuring tracks from Jimmy Durante, Herb Albert, and Jonah Mutono, to name a few, exuberating this classy elegance that compliments the film and its tone exceptionally, while feeling like this intimate time capsule from 90’s romantic comedies that prescribed these and piano-driven scores to the atmospheric range of such environments. The performances themselves also do a great service to the integrity of the entertainment factor, beginning with Day and Slate, whose awkward, witty relatability endears them to the audience in ways that make us deeply feel for these characters, but never in a way that feels pitying or manipulative in the air of their eye-opening experiences. Scott Eastwood also sheds convention by proving he has great comedic timing and capability in his deliveries, and when combined with Day’s charismatic enveloping brings forth palpable energy between them in polar opposites that could and hopefully will lead to more future collaborations along the way. Finally, while the ending does tread on the same predictable waters that I previously commended the film for swimming against, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased with how nuanced and reserved it materialized and permeated within the final lasting imagery of the film. It leaves plenty up to the ambiguity of interpretation of the audience that not only allows them to mentally construct the ending that they want for Peter and Emma, but also doesn’t reach for the same music-swelling, heart-pumping final shot that feels like a requirement in these kinds of films. It’s very “500 Days of Summer” in that direction.

NEGATIVES

Two hours is a bit too long for this film, despite the abundance of subplots and character dynamics that I previously commended the screenplay for. This is particularly pertinent during the second act, when unnecessarily long-winded subplots start to stack and even intrude on the central focus of the narrative and overall pacing in ways that test and even temporarily annoy for what’s included. One such subplot involves Emma getting involved with a middle school play, and the film drawing that play out to where we experience a musical number within it, sang by Slate herself. This, as well as an arc between Slate guiding a particular middle-schooler through the experience is ultimately unnecessary when you see how little it matters to everything else going around it and could’ve been trimmed or omitted all together to reduce twenty minutes from the film that it could’ve instead donated to the dynamic of Peter and Emma, whose ending resolution feels a bit rushed and abrupt because of the lack of development between them. Beyond this, I found the R-rating to be a bit unnecessary, especially in its usage of the material, which is minimal to say the least. There is some occasional vulgarity in the language channeled by frustrated characters, but it’s rarely anything that feels necessary to the depiction. This goes double for a shot of Scott Eastwood’s ass, which while I’m sure is great for admirers of his to see, only serves as a sight gag for a scene that doesn’t even feel like it belongs in the same movie.

OVERALL

“I Want You Back” is a sweetly charming surprise to the romantic-comedy subgenre that diverts intelligently enough from the predictable tropes of its predecessors to produce something memorably stimulating for both sides of the audience. Day and Slate have never been better, and when donning the screen together elicit a magnetic appeal so endearing that we too feel like the ghosts of exes past who want each of them back desperately when the story drifts from them.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+