Directed By Dan Levy Dagerman

Starring – Ritesh Rajan, Selina Ringel, Sydney Park

The Plot – For Mags (Ringel) and Ash (Rajan), marriage has become a series of arguments and compromises, leaving them both yearning for more. On their first vacation alone since becoming parents, their arguments threaten to ruin the trip-until they meet Angela (Park), a free-spirited digital nomad who stirs unexpected feelings in Mags and gives her permission to be a version of herself she has not been in years, fun. Intrigued by Angela, the couple flirts with the idea of a threesome, but it’s never quite as simple as it seems.

Rated R for sexual content, nudity, drug use and adult language.

YOU, ME & HER | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

Even for 2025, polyamory is still very much a touchy subject among mainstream cinema, and though “You, Me and Her” isn’t quite the quintessential film tapping into the subject that it wants so desparately to be, it is an enlightening and endearing engagement that inspires communication, selflessness, and especially acceptance to any relationship, sexually exploring or not, that feels stagnantly on the rocks. This comes naturally for Rajan and Ringel, who combine for the kind of battle-tested chemistry that not only feels very lived-in with such passive aggressive dialogue that communicates the gravely discord between their current situation, but also the atmospheric awkwardness that essentially follows them everywhere, with their conventional foundation in relationship taking on some progressive boundaries that effortlessly pits each of them into some squeamishly uncomfortable situations that were a pleasure to experience. Because of such, Dagerman’s film is certainly a journey towards self-discovery, but beyond that a cautionary tale of sorts to realize when any relationship requires a kick to get it over the proverbial hump, where trust and bond in dynamic are enough to overcome and roll with anything. While the opening act certainly has its abundance of problems, I did enjoy how Dagerman’s direction values spontaneity above all else, where the film begins feeling like it can only truly go one way, before deviating into something far more cerebral by its end, and while its resolution won’t be for everyone, particularly in how it doesn’t quite tie all of the conflicts up unanimously, it effectively taps into the waves of life that some people are just forced to ride along with and tread carefully, with an optimistic but open-ended finale that vividly represented the extensive transformation of Mags and Ash from their stuffily confrontational introductions. In terms of the sexual material itself, Dagerman approaches it with tasteful maturity that doesn’t require unnecessary titilation to sell its impact to the audience, instead utlizing hypnotically entrancing visuals and musical cues that appraise immersive insight into the minds of its characters. As Mags has the sexual awakening in the narrative, the audience follows her a lot more than Ash, especially as the film progresses into its second half, and with the use of overlapping transitions, color blending, and elevated volume of music played in the foreground of the scene, there’s this rush of palpable adrenaline that completely overwhelms the proceedings, clueing us in just enough to the wants and needs of the character, while also articulating some of the exoticism of this island getaway, which on its own includes some eye-fetching scenery that I couldn’t get enough of. As for the performances, this was obviously my first experience with Rajan, Ringel or Park, but it’s clear that their casting was anything but lucky or coincidental, as Ringel (Also the movie’s screenwriter) is responsible for some poignantly vulnerable instances of longing and regret that naturally breed empathy to the internal conflicts of her character, and when combined with Rajan’s lack of a poker face for adventures and explorations that he very much wants to be a part of but doesn’t want to leap first, conveys a polar opposite dynamic between them that illustrates the growing distance of two people who couldn’t be any different. Ringel’s sterness combined with Rajan’s lackadaisical demeanor leads to more than a few dramatic fireworks between the two that enhance the intrigue of the narrative, but it only comes full circle once Sydney Park moves into frame, with a mesmerizing essence that represents everything that the couple should be, but fear to fully give themselves over to. I use the word mesmerizing because not only is Park breathtakingly beautiful, with a heart-stopping smile and gently glowing charisma that belongs in any decade of film, but also an unmitigated confidence to characterization that adapts to any room that she chooses to invade, affording us the access of seeing her in the same way that Mags does during a sequence that feels like love at first sight for her.

NEGATIVES

While Ringel is forced to pull double duty here, it’s clear that her acting far exceeds her poignancy with the pen, as the film’s script is compromised almost entirely during an opening act that takes more time than should be necessary in an 89-minute engagement to find its proper footing for gained momentum. This is where knowing less to this movie’s plot might possibly hurt it, unlike most films, as the squandered attention span of those initial minutes towards arcs that don’t exactly materialize towards anything significant, or characters who appear and then disappear to never be seen again are a consistent reality, and only when Angela finally appears, at around the 35-minute mark of the film, does the film finally conjure some semblance of detectable objective for these characters, where the improvements upon the film’s far superior second half reward those who have remained faithfully invested, despite it not exactly being perfect on its own merits. For this section, I wish that the script delved a little deeper into what’s missing in the lives and relationship of Mags and Ash, as though we see the remedy in the sweet and sexy Angela, we’re given so very little to live alongside and experience their unique conflicts towards one another that has materialized this growing distance between them, leaving resolutions that at time feel a bit too convenient and even abrupt to feel fully satisfying, especially considering it takes too long for Mags to give in to her own intuitions, with very little time to experience the realities of her sexual awakening. Beyond the script, I also found the movie to be made distractingly cheap, particularly in the cinematography, editing choices, and overly obvious A.D.R, which permeated so consistently throughout the movie’s inferior first half. While I’m not prejudice to a movie that was made on a tighter budget, the aforementioned technical components here simply don’t feel up to par for a big screen presentation, with instances of out of focus characters and objects, as well as trigger happy premature cuts of scenes, feeling intrusive to an otherwise simplistic execution, only to be corrected or improved upon with the aforementioned expressive sequences exerting Mags’ affection for Angela. Finally, “You, Me and Her” is a dramedy, but the comedic side of that hybrid doesn’t always land as prominently as intended, with unimpressive material that constantly feel like afterthoughts to the way they’re executed. Most of the problem certainly feels like a lack of commitment and confidence from Dagerman, whose direction seems to cater more to the dramatic entanglements of the tonal versatility, with only pocketed instances of intended and apparent humor, but just as much blame honestly belongs with the creativity in these vulnerable conflicts, with only a few spare instances capable of emitting a laugh that wasn’t just a desperate chuckle.

OVERALL
“You, Me and Her” dissects marital monotony and polyamory with the kind of refreshingly unflinching focus that mainstream cinema has rarely felt comfortable towards exploiting, and with a trio of authentically rich and believable performances to its appeal, succeeds on overcoming some of the budgetary hinderances and dramedy stereotypes that have condemned lesser films. Despite inconsistent humor and structural flaws that could test impatient audiences, the film has plenty to say about suppressed urges and conventional ideals, which don’t always take two to tango.

My Grade: 7.2 or B-