'I Want You Back' Review: Scorned Heartbroken Souls Form an Anti-Parent Trap
R: Language, sexual material, some drug use, and partial nudity
Runtime: 1 Hr and 52 Minutes
Production Companies: The Safran Company, The Walk-Up Company
Distributor: Amazon Studios
Director: Jason Orley
Writers: Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger
Cast: Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Gina Rodriguez, Scott Eastwood, Manny Jacinto, Clark Backo, Luke David Blumm, Mason Gooding, Dylan Gelua
Release Date: February 11, 2022
In Theaters & Amazon Prime
Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) are total strangers, but when they meet, one thing instantly bonds them: they were both unexpectedly dumped by their respective partners, Anne (Gina Rodriguez) and Noah (Scott Eastwood), on the same weekend. Terrified that, in their 30s, they have lost their shot at happily ever after and horrified at the prospect of having to start over, Peter and Emma hatch a desperate plot to win the loves of their lives back. Each will do whatever it takes to put an end to their exes’ new relationships and send them running back to their arms.
Who went into the deepest parts of my subconscious of favorite comedic actors and paired Charlie Day and Jenny Slate in a rom-com? Two naturally hilarious talents headlining an R-rated romantic comedy with an anti-Parent Trap premise is simply one to fall head over heels for. It shouldn't come as a surprise when I say that Slate and Day are the core components that make this rom-com work. Their respective characters, Emma and Peter, hatch the pettiest plot a dumpee can create, yet their dynamic manages to slap a smile on your face. The most naturalistic element of the comedy is their budding friendship and its gradual development to becoming something special.
The cold open displays how these two strangers are heartbroken by their respective significant others and it’s brutal. You instantly feel the weight of their emotion until their meet-cute, crying in the stairway of the capitalistic health company they work at. The two make their pact after getting drunk at karaoke to become each other’s best friends (or, as Emma says, “sadness sisters”). Since they’re still hung up on their exes — and being hurt by how quickly they found new partners — they do the most understandable yet fucked up thing by enlisting each other to break up their ex’s new romances. This leads to Peter getting Emma’s ex Noah (Scott Eastwood) as his personal trainer while Emma volunteers for a production of Little Shop of Horrors at the middle school Peter’s ex Anne (Gina Rodriguez) works at. Yeah, one opens more jar of question marks than the other but they do address their madness at times.
As they get to know each other better, you feel more connected with them. As their friendship progresses, Peter and Emma open a series of personal tabs about themselves that are well aligned to their current position in life that, at times, get more focus than the main mission at hand. Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger’s script is more focused on developing Peter and Emma’s arcs outside of their exes and utilizes proper pacing to make them feel fleshed out as people. However, it’s not as equally balanced, for Peter's crisis is more intriguing than Emma’s. All his peers, whom you never see, have kids and stable lives while he’s getting older and is stuck at a company he hates. Emma is getting by on autopilot and feels as if she has little purpose, even down to living at a house with a horny college couple. You feel for them and within their bizarre, convoluted mission to win back the hearts of their exes, they find more of themselves. If it was executed with the same level of integrity as I just described, I Want You Back would’ve likely stood out as a great rom-com of this generation. Instead, it’s in a constant see-saw of being both improbably whacky with its comedy while trying to be a character-driven exploration of mid-life romances.
I Want You Back is genuinely an entertaining rom-com that wants you to have a good time, but the screenplay lacks focus as far as what kind of comedy it wants to be. It doesn’t stray far from Jason Orley’s previous feature, Big Time Adolescence, where it wants to be a down-to-earth comedy but often relishes in raunchy extremes to garner a laugh out of you. Because of that, the leads aren’t fleshed out to the best of their abilities while their “Will they? Won't they?” dynamic feels completely rushed. I’m all here for conventional tropes in rom-coms but this has ample glimpses of nuanced potential that at times tugged my heartstrings, especially during moments between Peter and Emma simply hanging out, making me wanna become their best friend. Yet it diverts to over-the-top and long-winded comedic sequences that aren’t very funny. When it comes to Peter and Emma showing forms of romantic attraction to each other, it’s mostly direct cliches when you know it’s capable of being more. It constantly goes through weird extremes and nuanced life stuff but never has the guts to stick to one. Hell, the most authentic extreme it takes is depicting how insufferable theater people are. By the time the film reaches its predictable final act, it’s completely underwhelming as it takes the dumbest of leaps for a preachy and cheesy finale. For an R-rated comedy, the finale has a major sitcom sensibility. And I mean Family Guy-type sitcom.
As great as Charlie Day and Jenny Slate are in I Want You Back, this anti-Parent Trap restrains them as the film makes their designated missions zanier than the characters themselves. Their friendship gets proper development, but as it shifts to something more, it misses the mark due to lack of focus and unbearable extremes. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining rom-com that has moments of humanity, charm, and enough laughs to get you by.
