by Austen Terry, Contributing Writer
Romantic Comedies have always been a guilty pleasure for me, and I have seen so many — the good and the bad. Most have a very formulaic plot: two people have a meet cute, go out on a date, fall in love, break up, and then get back together by the end after some big romantic gesture. Well Netflix’s newest rom-com, Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between tries to turn that formula on its head by saying the characters are going on their last date before college. With fresh young actors and a story based on a book, you would think or better yet hope this would be the next best rom-com.
Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between tells the story of Claire (Talia Ryder), who meets Aidan (Jordan Fisher) one night during a Halloween party. They make a pact to date over the next 10 months, but to break up before they go to their separate colleges. Claire wants to stick to their pact, but with everyone in her life, including her best friend Stella (Ayo Edebiri), Claire must decide the fate of her future. Setting the romance of the story as one that will have an ending is interesting, because with most rom-coms you get your hopes up for the couple not to break up, even though it’s inevitable. Aidan plans a big romantic gesture, as one would, that is similar to other rom-coms, but he does it in his own unique way by going through their firsts. The story is broken up this way, and in some ways it keeps you focused, but it also doesn’t.
I will probably never write a review without mentioning chemistry; for me that makes or breaks a movie. If your leads don’t have chemistry, the movie just won’t feel real. Ryder and Fisher have chemistry and play off each other well — it feels like they were a couple for 10 months. Everybody in this movie really flows well together. The film being Michael Lewen’s directorial debut might have something to do with it. It seems Lewen does know how to pull what is needed from his actors, even if some things don’t always land.
There are only a few moments where meaningful words are spoken and remembered. Most of the dialogue feels like it is just written words from other love stories. Even with the story being different, it feels like several other rom-coms where the couple is going off to college, and has to decide what to do about their relationship. There’s not any new ground being broken or something really new to be said. The only truly memorable thing said was, “a relationship doesn’t have a shot in hell if you start planning its end before it even starts.” The tired old “trying to convince” cliché is again used to drive the plot forward, and a lot of times this thread is used always to pull a character in a direction they don’t really want to go.
After watching this not even 90-minute movie, I am left feeling like I probably won’t be watching it again. The story is told through flashing back to dates while trying to relive them, and it largely feels like it would work better on the page — it doesn’t translated to the screen well. There are some transitions and B-roll footage that just doesn’t seem to flow narratively with the story. The B-roll doesn’t feel like it fits because I couldn’t place the city the movie was in. They also used the same drone shot over a bridge several times, and I am pretty sure it’s the same shot each time.
Even though the characters are likable and the actors had good chemistry, the film couldn’t hold my attention. By the end of it, I honestly didn’t care whether they stayed together, broke up, or lived out their own separate dreams. With other rom-coms I have watched, most of the time I would be rooting for them to stay together, or my attention span is held throughout. Maybe it’s like what the quote says, if you plan the end in the beginning, will it even work? Well, that’s a hard no, because despite me liking the characters, the movie itself just felt boring because you knew where it was going. It’s not like movies that start at one point and then go back to the beginning — you could almost guess the end before the credits roll.
I may have been expecting too much out of this film. It’s a quick watch and the actors have great chemistry. Each of the leads has been in other projects that are worth checking out. Maybe I should read the book as well.
Score: 4/10
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