Netflix’s newly-released rom-com “Your Place or Mine,” written by “The Devil Wears Prada” director Aline Brosh McKenna, is trying to bring back “Sleepless in Seattle” but to a new generation of viewers. As the new addition is definitely not sleepless nor in Seattle, “Your Place or Mine” sincerely struggles to find where it wants to go, hence the inquisitive title.
The film stars iconic actors Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon, as they play apart from each other as two long-time, long distanced friends in their 40s. When Debbie (Witherspoon) is given the chance to go to a week-long program in New York, she and Peter (Kutcher) swap houses so that he can take care of her teenage son while Debbie has a place to stay.
From the start, the premise seems promising with the two main characters becoming long-time friends after hooking up on a one night stand. But as the film drags on and on for almost two hours, it starts to lose its premise and its promise. The plot stacks plotline on top of plotline until there is so much awkwardness and stiffness to go around. Peter’s storylines are more sustainable whereas Debbie’s storylines seem to be all over the place.
The humor, which is essentially the key part of being a rom-com, is hard to find while watching. Kutcher, desperately trying to seem like a “cool” older guy to the younger generations, gets old extremely quickly. He somehow manages to charm hearts with his golden retriever energy, whereas Witherspoon tries to play the high strung mom character, which isn’t exactly admirable.
With her contemporary dry humor delivery, comedian Tig Notaro does her best to dig up a few laughs as a side character. Zoe Chao, who is also a side character, tries to play the ridiculous millennial type that is meant to be laughed at, not with. Steve Zahn, who plays Debbie’s peculiar neighbor, inserts some necessary absurdity to make the film less sufferable. But nonetheless, the film is truly intolerable as it drags out useless plot points and contains pacing that makes you feel like you are trapped in a box for 110 minutes.
The main two have a lack of chemistry, partially due to the fact that the plot surrounds them not seeing each other for several years and basically the whole movie. Even the off-screen red carpet photos for the release of the film are as awkward as their chemistry in the movie. Witherspoon’s character honestly has more chemistry with co-star Jesse Williams than she does with Kutcher, granted her and Williams are on-screen together longer than with her other co-star. But it’s the fact that these two characters have more interesting relationships with other characters in the film than the two who are meant to be the most relevant.
The film, of course, pulls out the same rom-com tropes seen time and time again. The ending in an airport, the overexaggerated conflicts, the overexaggerated miscommunication between characters, the list goes on and on. It also takes a similar stance of having the main characters have to explain to several other characters why they can’t date the other person, usually with the exhausted excuse of “She’s her and I’m me.” As anticipated, all of their issues, including the ones where they each had gone behind the other’s back, are somehow solved in a 5-minute long public screaming match. All these tropes are expected, and the film cannot amount to any originality since it sticks to such an outdated formula.
One of the more exemplary aspects of the film is the persistent use of music by famous rock band, The Cars. Its importance eventually makes sense and its added ample consistency throughout the film, which was desperately needed. Sadly, the discography of The Cars wasn’t the only music used for the film, as Netflix can’t seem to go one film without adding the cheesiest, somewhat unknown songs into it.
While it tries to do what Nora Ephron has perfected time and time again, it sorely lacks charm, desire or any substance. Unlike the featured song “Magic” by The Cars, there is none to be found. Desperately trying to be similar to the influential rom-coms from the 90s and 2000s, it will most likely be forgotten by the time Netflix pulls out another rom-com of the like. Overall, it’s a shame that two well-known, formative actors, who have made several appearances in rom-coms, weren’t able to amplify such a horrible script that has no true destination.
