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It’s a head-scratcher, as a result of this duo’s dynamic is so authentically lived-in, notably after audiences have been watching Witherspoon and Kutcher of their respective rom-coms for the reason that early 2000s (McKenna even has confirmed this was by design). However in contrast to Ticket to Paradise reteaming Julia Roberts and George Clooney as prickly divorcées, or The Misplaced Metropolis actually leaning into the polar opposites banter (however with the essential shared basis of romance novels!) for Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, Kutcher and Witherspoon’s characters are virtually too comparable.
The supporting solid is stellar, from Steve Zahn as Debbie’s eccentric gardener Zen to latest TV breakouts Griffin Matthews (The Flight Attendant) and Britney Younger (GLOW) displaying up on the East Coast. The straightforward manner that the leads get together with one another’s shut mates and lovers—Peter and Alicia (Tig Notaro) sharing coffees at college pickup, his ex Minka (a standout Zoë Chao) taking Debbie out for fancy cocktails—shores up why they need to be constructing a life collectively as a substitute of on reverse coasts.
But whereas these cameos enliven the film, they’re additionally a bit baffling for what number of small roles there are. Shiri Appleby particularly is egregiously underused as an previous flame of Peter’s, her temporary look making one wonder if the remainder of her scene ended up on the slicing room flooring. There are a number of situations of characters speaking about one thing the place it might need been extra enjoyable (although doubtless additionally dearer?) to truly present the second in query, like Peter flashing again to Debbie telling him she was pregnant.
Your Place or Mine may have benefited from displaying much more of the intervening 20 years, largely as a result of it might have put Debbie and Peter within the precise identical room. And sure, the film cleverly makes the purpose that between textual content threads and FaceTime, it is vitally a lot doable to maintain up to date on the trivialities of one another’s lives and nurture that emotional intimacy regardless of bodily distance. However that implies that while you are within the room collectively, you need to make the proximity really matter.
What’s extra, it simply would have been actually enjoyable to get extra scenes just like the opening make out session, annotated Pop-Up Video-style with reminders of our most unlucky vogue decisions in 2003. McKenna is so savvy working inside a plot constraint, whether or not the high-stakes vogue world in Satan Wears Prada or all the marriage ceremony trappings in 27 Attire (debating the lyrics of “Benny and the Jets”? good!), that she may have leaned in additional to her personal premise. Think about a rom-com charting how a friendship stays alive earlier than and after social media, or having Debbie and Peter acknowledge how they’re embodying the 2 ladies on the coronary heart of The Vacation. (Peter is clearly Cameron Diaz, which makes Debbie Kate Winslet.)
As an alternative they inform themselves that they make such good mates that, sadly, they’ve principally acquired us satisfied. Nonetheless, if you wish to reside vicariously by their equally idyllic lives, and make it in order that McKenna will get to direct extra of her personal work, then that is nonetheless a candy Valentine’s deal with from one of many style’s most proficient voices.
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