Marilyn Slom

A person’s mood and psychological state play an important role in choosing the movies he wants to watch, especially if watching at home, he sometimes looks for movies that give him comfort and relaxation, and they are often romantic. Comedies (which are abbreviated as “romcoms”) or family films, even cartoons; Relaxation, however, does not mean that the product displayed in front of you is weak or naive, it makes you feel like you wasted your time instead of giving you pleasure, enrichment and desire to see more. The movie “Your place or mine” shown by this category “Netflix” is a romantic comedy because it has a successful writer and the names of intelligent and loving actors, but it gives. You are a little bit of everything.

It is as if you are in front of a group of complex parts, from which the writer has omitted important and beautiful details, so that the whole work is reduced to an average and acceptable level. Therefore, Aline Brush McKenna failed to write a new romantic comedy film that matches her professional development and the development of the time we have reached in 2023, and she presented two successful works of the same kind, “The Devil Wears Prada” and earlier. “27 Dresses”? Or did she fall into the directing trap and not improve her knowledge of the writing and directing sides at the same time?

“Your Place or Mine” and its subtitle “Your Place or My Place” could have been almost as funny and better, and if its writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna had paid attention, it’s one of those romantic creations you’ll want to watch more than once. For the points that weakened the plot and made the film look good, it paid attention to many details, but nothing more. And without a minute, the film becomes like a “jigsaw puzzle”, the scenes and events of which are established. Here and there until the last minutes of painting are finished. He excelled in casting Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, while emptying the story of deep content and logical events that would make the audience believe what they were seeing on screen; McKenna opens her film with a romantic scene and a stormy meeting between the two heroes, Debbie (Witherspoon) and Peter (Kutcher), which we soon learn will be their first and last meeting after her breakup. In Los Angeles he is in New York – maintaining such a strong friendship that not a day goes by without communicating with them, by phone, they exchange ideas, consult on everything or almost everything, and the situation continues for twenty years. During that time Debbie becomes a single mother caring for her son Jack (Wesley Kimmel), while his father escapes from responsibility by practicing his hobby of mountain climbing. Suddenly Debbie decides to move to New York and work in accounting. Knowing that she dreams of becoming a writer and newspaper editor, she agrees to meet Peter there, as well as her acting-obsessed friend Scarlett, to enroll in a course leading to a further certificate in accountancy. Jack must be cared for in his absence because as a teenager (age 13), he suffers from multiple allergies, and his mother surrounds him with intense concern and constant worry, besieging him in an exaggerated way. Suddenly, Scarlett also gets the opportunity of a lifetime and is accepted to play in Vancouver, and she has to travel immediately.

Drama knot

Surprises that you can accept to go along with events in the hope that you will meet on your path that will surprise you, dazzle you and lead you to an interesting theater complex. Of course, the third surprise is that Peter decides to come to Los Angeles to take care of his son instead of Debbie, leaving her the keys to his fancy apartment. Here we don’t understand the author’s insistence that Debbie and Peter never meet face to face in the first flash scene and in the last minutes?! This meant that Witherspoon and Kutcher did not actually meet on set for representation and did not stand face-to-face except for a few moments while the director used video calling technology (video call) to bring them together and the conversation took place. She splits the screen in two so we see them together in one frame.

Peter is a very successful and wealthy business consultant who lives in an electronic working house with modern technologies. Everything is clean and organized, even the books in his library are arranged according to their colors, while Debbie’s house is full of life and chaos. She chose it for her son’s health in a high place in the middle of trees and nature. A set of clear contradictions between them. He is not settled in his relationships, so he avoids involvement and involvement with everyone he knows, and she is a mother who takes care of all the details of her son. She gives Peter clippings everywhere in her house. He kept and guided him and gave him pointers on what to do at the right time and what to stay away from. Protection of his son.

A different adventure

The friendship that develops between Peter and Jack is cute, but we expected it to be infused with a lot of suspense. Debbie also lives a different adventure, thanks to an old friend, Minka (Zoe Zhao). When Peter came to see Peter, he was surprised by the presence of Debbie, whom Peter had always spoken of so admiringly. The incredible thing was that a strong friendship between a man and a woman lasted for 20 years. How can this relationship be strong and hide the love hidden between its folds, and neither of them find the opportunity or the courage to express it? How will each of them suddenly find themselves in love with the other after all this time? And what’s even weirder is that Debbie finds out that Peter keeps pictures of her in a secret place in his house, and he’s writing a novel and hiding it from everyone, who is the closest person to him? How does the film continue to unfold and unfold as a coincidence puts famous book publisher Theo Martin (Jesse Williams) on Debbie’s path just in time?

The story needs more

Writer McKenna (not new, but we’ve seen many similar ones in romantic films) director McKenna, we didn’t expect the ending to come with so much “instruction” and such speed without the director giving it. We got a chance to see the two heroes together in one place and the open session between them was realistic and logical and not random when we saw it! Whether it’s Witherspoon, Kutcher, Zoe or baby Wesley, the cast is good. If the story, its content and the dialogue help them, they have the ability to succeed in a task and give a great performance. ; Had the author worked in the same style as her previous successful works, she would have been able to add a new stamp here as well.

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