A still from ‘Your Place or My’ Photo credit: Netflix
Netflix’s latest rom-com gets off to a promising start with Aline Brosh McKenna (known for writing movies like 27 clothes And The Devil Wears Prada.) to head it.
After a hookup in 2003, Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) have been friends for over twenty years. They claim to share everything with each other, but the people in their lives do not agree.
Debbie (Reese Witherspoon), an accountant and single mother to Jake (Wesley Kimmel), lives out her days in a small Los Angeles cottage before her son’s allergies develop, while Peter (Ashton Kutcher), an easy-going Amir is a native of New York. Someone who struggles with long-term relationships spends time in an apartment (without color) looking out at the city skyline.
Your place or mine
Director: Aline Brosh McKenna
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Wesley Kimmel, Steve Zahn, Jesse Williams, Tig Notaro,
Runtime: 109 minutes
Story: Debbie and Peter are best friends and complete opposites. She longs for routine with her son in LA, but he thrives on change in New York. When they swap homes and lives for a week, they discover that what they want may not be what they need.
After being caught by his nanny at the last minute, Peter offers to fly to LA and babysit Jack at his cottage, while opening his home for Debbie (who is on a week-long training course). In the process, they open up their lives to each other and to the audience.
Debbie, who dreams of becoming an editor at a publishing house, follows a path of desperation and runs to a desk working with numbers to reason with logic. Meanwhile, Peter, who has always wanted to be a writer, is caught up in struggles with brands and banks. However, his dreams have a magnetic pull on him to this day. Discovering each other’s secrets sets them on a mission to make each other’s dreams come true.
The film’s leads spend most of their time in two different cities and the split screen plays poorly with the romantic tension. In a film that is supposed to be about love and romance, the audience is never given a chance to gauge the chemistry of the leads. While Witherspoon and Kutcher fit their parts, and the film touches on popular stereotypes (including the airport scene in the climax), it never really pans out.
Not to mention, boxing the female lead as a neurotic mother who likes to organize, and the male lead as an overbearing commitment-phobic playboy living in a New York apartment survive the film. Reduces attractiveness. However, Steve Zahn as Zane, an IT guy who bends over in Debbie’s garden trying to win her over, provides pleasant comic relief in a film full of robotic emotion.
Watching the movie made me want to watch it again expertly. Love, sustenancea Sam Claflin and Lily Collins starrer that works with a similar storyline.
Your Place or Mine is currently streaming on Netflix.
