Also watched the new Netflix original romantic comedy / time loop movie When We First Met. It’s mainly a (very broad) romantic comedy that merges that sequence in Groundhog Day where Bill Murray tries to replicate the perfect day with Andie McDowell. And, you know, it’s a really charming, occasionally very funny movie.
The film stars Adam Devine a little too much. I like Adam Devine just fine but he can really dial up the comedic overacting… and he he does just that in this film. A little of that sitcom level goofiness can go a long, long way. But he does put his all into it so credit there… and he does also manage to play the emotional and charming bits well, dialing down the mania enough to play human.
The premise is that Devine meets and falls for a woman played be Alexandra Dondario (and her blue, blue eyes you can scuba dive in) but he messes up their first date and they wind up best friends. Three years later, he has regrets and through some “Big”-style shenanigans involving and old, mystical photo booth, he travels back to they day they met and tries to get it right. And, being a goofball comedy, each trip through the time loop has comedic results… such as winding up overweight and overworked or with frosted tips (*the horror!, The Horror!*).
Besides the comedic overacting from Devine, the only other real problem is that the movie is very predictable. You can see how it ends from a mile away so it’s largely just a lot of time spent waiting for our thundering ninny of a main character to realize what we already know about the relationship(s).
On the other hand, I laughed a decent amount and found the characters’ banter cute, charming, and adorable. So maybe that count-balances predictability in a romantic comedy.
So, yeah, a good little comedy. Won’t break the bank with originality but it might make you laugh and maybe even saw “awwww, that was cute”. Or not. Maybe it’ll infuriate you. Who knows! I enjoyed it though. A good time loop romantic comedy.
Score: 82