The review of Your Place or Mine – a romantic comedy with infectious charm appeared first on Ready Steady Cut.
Directed by Aline Brosh McKenna, we review the 2023 Netflix movie Your Place or Mine, which contains no spoilers.
It’s a week of romantic comedies in Stable cut ready. Every streaming service offers one, and yours covers four of them. You know, the kind that leaves logic at the door, with scripts overdosing on sentimentality. Movies that will make you appreciate what you have and desire what you don’t. THE netflix entrance, Your place or mine, has an awful title. However, this romantic comedy can be charming, slightly funny and surprisingly sweet.
Your Place or Mine (2023) Plot Review and Summary
The story follows two friends as they reflect on and celebrate 20 years of friendship. Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) are best friends. Their relationship began dating and deciding to be opposites; they would be better off as friends. This being a romantic comedy, you would think that an attractive couple with such friendship, with the rule that opposites attract, would make a great couple. Peter is an aggressive, wealthy, hip brand consultant. He gave up his dreams of becoming a writer decades ago for a rich and ambitious lifestyle. By comparison, Debbie gave up her dreams of being a writer for the safe choice of being an accountant. In Peter’s eyes, she takes very few risks professionally. Even personally.
Debbie has a thirteen-year-old son, Jack (Wesley Kimmel). Her actress friend Scarlet (Rachel Bloom) lands a movie role, so she can’t watch Debbie’s son during a planned visit to New York. For some strange reason, Debbie has a gardener (Steve Zahn) who owned his house. It never left and the man just won’t stop pruning. (Yes, we wonder why the man can’t look at Jack too). So Peter volunteers. Their planes (probably) cross paths and they swap houses for a week, where Peter tries to be Jack’s father. In contrast, Debbie meets a dashing book editor (jesse williams). There is an immediate attraction. And they look at each other while discussing the list of books he has published around the world.
Written and directed by Aline Brosh McKenna (The devil wears Prada), his film is more interesting and excels when the storyline focuses on the protagonists interacting with the secondary characters. In particular, one of Peter’s exes (Zoe Chao) appears half-naked under a coat while Deb House sits in her beautiful New York apartment (with the most fantastic view you’ll ever see). Chao is very funny, making Deb his project and pushing her out of her comfort zone. Then you have Deb’s friend, a school mom (Tig Notaro), who delivers his dry sense of humor as Peter attempts to be Father Jack. The young man needs a father, and Peter encourages Jack to try new things, like making friends and going out for the hockey team.
What you have here with McKenna’s film is About a boy meets You’ve got mail. Peter seeks to find more meaning in his life by being a father figure to Jack. Then Deb, a lover of literature, is passed out by the publisher of William’s book, Theo. The rom-com avoids the trappings of wanting or not wanting for 90 minutes with the constant interaction that can make a movie feel like it’s never-ending. Here, the viewer enjoys the two stories that gently incorporate hints and backstory clues about each main character yearning for each other.
There are common sense issues. It would be normal for someone to tire of a friend who has relapsed twice with drugs and alcohol to watch over his children without worry. The romance between Debbie and Theo has a certain warmth to it, and their storyline could have been its feature. So there is the danger that some viewers will think they are suitable for each other, which will ruin the payoff. And frankly, Peter keeps items hidden around his immaculately cleaned apartment, equipped with an inside-the-house surveillance system, inside large brown zippered envelopes like a serial killer hiding memories. But we can ignore that because if Witherspoon vouches for him, and the guy looks like Ashton Kutcher, he must be awesome, right?
Is your place or mine good?
Your place or mine has a rushed ending that does the film a disservice. However, the main performances are lovely. There are some real laughs from the cast, especially the infectious Zao Choe. This rom-com will appeal strictly to fans of the genre and/or Witherspoon and Kutcher’s star power. While I was initially on the fence about McKenna’s film because the ending needed a rewrite, there’s enough here to offer a slight recommendation.
What did you think of the 2023 Netflix movie Your Place or Mine? Comments below.
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The review of Your Place or Mine – a romantic comedy with infectious charm appeared first on Ready Steady Cut.
