"Your Place Or Mine" -- Movie Review

 

This week, I attended a special screening of the new romantic comedy from Netflix, “Your Place Or Mine”, starring Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher. 

Synopsis

When two long-time platonic friends trade places for a week, will their relationship transform into a romance?

Story

Twenty years ago, when they were both living in Los Angeles, Debbie and Peter (Witherspoon and Kutcher) had a hook-up.  They never continued a romantic relationship beyond that, but did maintain contact over the years, despite the fact that Peter eventually moved to New York City.  Debbie wound up getting married and had a son, Jack (Wesley Kimmel) – but when she got divorced, she found herself a single mother dedicated to raising and supporting Jack completely on her own.  Peter, on the other hand, decided to abandon his dreams of becoming a writer and managed to develop a successful consulting business. 

Debbie is scraping by financially and looks for career advancement – towards that end, she decides to sign up for a class that may allow her to either get a promotion or a better paying job.  Unfortunately, the course is a week long and taught in New York City, requiring her to leave Jack for a week while a friend watches him.  Although she’s looking forward to spending some time with Peter after her classes, her plans fall through when her friend must take a job and is unavailable to be with Jack.  When Peter finds out about this, he offers to fly to Los Angeles to watch Jack for her while she stays at his place and concentrates on her studies.

Once the two have temporarily exchanged residences, both soon discover that they have been missing out on life opportunities that they find rewarding and fulfilling.  For one thing, Peter develops a friendship with Jack, serving as something of a surrogate father.  Meanwhile, Debbie winds up dating Theo (Jesse Williams), a book publisher whom she meets by chance through one of Peter’s exes (Zoe Chao).  When Debbie learns Jack has been hospitalized after playing hockey, she is furious at Peter and orders him to leave while she returns to Los Angeles to care for Jack.  But after they both discover secrets about each other during their trip, will they nevertheless be able to rekindle their affair?

Review

The suspension of disbelief that one must dedicate to “Your Place Or Mine” is rather substantial; in fact, suspending it from a height far above that which the infamous Chinese spy balloon recently flew might not be much of an overstatement.  If you like being bashed over the head with a sledgehammer repeatedly, then you’ll probably enjoy the clumsy manner in which the character exposition is delivered at various points throughout the movie.  Despite the chemistry between Kutcher and Witherspoon, this is very much the formulaic superficial rom-com that is perfect for much-needed escapist entertainment.    

One of the many contrivances is the “house swap” premise.  Why does Debbie have to take a weeklong trip from Los Angeles to New York City in order to take a class?  Seriously, is there nothing similar being offered closer to where she lives so that she doesn’t have to have someone babysit her son?  Then, there’s also the contrivance of her allowing Peter to mind her son, despite the fact that he’s only ever met the boy over video calls.  Lastly, there’s the obvious contrivance that is the overriding premise of the story:  that two heterosexual people of the opposite sex who live three time zones away can maintain a nonphysical friendship for twenty years.  Enjoy your fairytale. 

Prior to the screening, the movie was introduced by writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna, who was accompanied by cast members Tig Notaro, Zoe Chao, Jesse Williams, Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon.  Kutcher said that although he was excited to learn he would be doing a film with Witherspoon, it turned out that they only worked together for about two or three days during the shoot.  McKenna told the audience that “Your Place Or Mine” would be good to watch for what she termed “Gal-entine’s Day” – when single women without a date for Valentine’s Day get together.  Kutcher initially misunderstood this to be “Gallontine’s Day” where a group of buddies gather to drink a gallon of wine.