There are so many romantic comedies that come out every year, and so many of them follow the same formula that they become exhaustingly repetitive, just uninspired, and, regardless from how attractive the leads, nothing can save these movies from purgatory. However, when the romantic comedies do something different, if not even explicitly new for the genre, the movie at least provides something interesting for the audience to sink their teeth into. Thankfully, Peter Hutchings’s (The Hating Game) Which Brings Me to You puts something fresh enough in the forefront with two incredibly likable leads, making this romantic comedy something to enjoy, which isn’t always done in romcoms.
L-R: Nat Wolff as Will and Lucy Hale as Jane in the romantic comedy, WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU, a DECAL release. Photo courtesy of DECAL Releasing.
The movie focuses on conventionally attractive people consisting of Jane and Will (Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff, respectively) as they meet at a wedding and almost do the deed in the coat closet until the brakes are ultimately pumped and they have a falling out. One thing leads to another and they end up in a car together as Jane isn’t feeling well enough to be alone and they start a terrible game of exchanging stories from their pasts. Now, it starts off by sharing embarrassing sexual experiences and then moves to past loves and then realizing maybe some things happen for a reason. This is raunchy in all the raunchiest ways for some of it, but considering the stories focus on each of them and their exes, the two leads don’t necessarily get the raunchiness on with one another, unlike some of the other romantic comedies we’ve come to see and adore.
While the movie follows a rather non-linear approach to storytelling, the script by Keith Bunin (Nimona; Onward), based on the novel written by Julianna Baggott and Steve Almond, and certainly manages to take these seemingly unconnected (aside from our two leads being the focal point) love mishaps and tie them together to give us a coherent feature that shines a light on the bright and the dim parts of falling in and out of love. While not everything is always sunshine and rainbows, it’s the laughs, love, and heartbreak we develop over the course of it all that brings humanity to the core of their essence.
L-R: John Gallagher, Jr. as Wallace and Lucy Hale as Jane in the romantic comedy, WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU, a DECAL release. Photo courtesy of DECAL Releasing.
Nat Wolff (Murder at Yellowstone City) and Lucy Hale (The Hating Game) are quite perfectly cast in this do-they-don’t-they romantic comedy as they can play the undeniably attractive leads effortlessly while also playing the cold jaded personas they both clearly are afflicted with. There is a delicate balance of chemistry they have to play with that helps elevate the chaos and emotions they as characters go through with their stories and takes the audience on a journey of not feeling so alone with some of these interactions they share. While not every story is relatable (specifically the embarrassing story Will shares at the beginning of their sharing expedition), there are moments of levity and moments of genuine heartbreak making the audience not only look a little deeper into themselves, but realize these characters are not perfect and have several human attributes attributed to them, and not in the typical Hollywoodized romantic comedy that forgets characters are supposed to be relatable way.
L-R: Nat Wolff as Will and Lucy Hale as Jane in the romantic comedy, WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU, a DECAL release. Photo courtesy of DECAL Releasing.
While romantic comedies are usually hit or miss, and more often than not they are either excessively depressing (staring right at you Nicholas Sparks adaptations) when they have incredibly likable leads and tell stories that focus on situations most adults probably have gone through at one point or another (to an extent), they bring a new level of humanity to the film itself. With likable leads to captivate the audience and tell the stories of past heartbreak and how it helped make them the people they are today, for better or worse, Which Brings Me to You captivates the audience with the age-old anecdote of good things come when you least expect it.
In theaters January 19th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official DECAL Releasing Which Brings Me To You webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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