PLOT
Debbie and Peter are great friends, even if they are complete opposites. While her kid prefers variety in New York, she craves routine with him in Los Angeles. What they believe they desire may be different from what they need. They learn as they trade homes and lives for a week.
REVIEW
This perfectly competent but romantic comedy is released for Valentine’s Day when Harry Met Sally mated to a Middle of Lidl-The Holiday. Your Place Or Mine never attempts to be more than merely aggressively satisfactory, which may not come as a surprise given the current abundance of short, mindless romcoms to which the streamers are currently so enslaved.
Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher owe their early careers to romcoms and have both refrained from lead roles in recent years. According to marketing, sharing the screen for the first time is the main attraction.
If that initially drew you in, get ready to be let down because they don’t interact with each other for more than ten minutes at a time, with most of their interactions occurring during split-screen phone calls. These are unquestionably actors with quaint charm and star-quality beauty. They display charisma in spades. But with this kind of stuff, you can only go so far.
The story, written by Aline Brosh McKenna, the director, is mostly wrapped in the familiarity of the genre clichés. It would help if you influenced troublesome children. Airport rush-hour is the closing act. Some unusual best friends remain on the margin with the express intention of deliberate life advice.
Debbie and Peter shouldn’t be dating, but the movie doesn’t even try to pretend that. Why they are not in the first five minutes is a direct question from a supporting character. Therefore, the traditional schemes to keep them apart seem even more ridiculous than usual.
Even by American romcom standards, the universe these individuals live in is offensively shiny and overly romantic. Nothing feels remotely authentic or realistic. He resides in a multi-million dollar Brooklyn penthouse with sweeping views of the Manhattan Bridge. She resides in a lavish Beverly Hills property with a well-planted lawn.
We occasionally see glimpses of a more superior, thoughtful film. Even though the characters’ love interests are impossibly handsome, it’s moderately uplifting to see a relationship develop between characters in their 40s who have previously experienced life. There are hints of darker subplots as well, with Peter is shown to be an alcoholic in recovery, but they are just hinted at.
Rating – Three out of five stars.
Aline Brosh McKenna directed the movie. Producers include Reese Witherspoon, Michael Costigan, Aline Brosh McKenna, Lauren Levy Neustadter, and Jason Bateman. Reese Witherspoon, Wesley Kimmel, Steve Zahn, Rachel Bloom, Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Chao, and other actors star in it. On February 10, 2023, the film was made available via OTT and limited theaters. Netflix is currently streaming the movie.
