Which Brings Me to You

So this is a movie about a couple of walking red flags doing a whole bunch of red flagging and eventually winning a happy ending.

I hate it.

The supermarket musical score is as terrible as it is entirely fitting.

It wants to be a movie about redemption and learning from mistakes with a heartwarming there's-someone-for-everyone outcome but it isn't. What it is instead is an exercise in excusing terrible behaviour, a commitment deficit, emotional gaslighting and a complete lack of personal accountability.

None of the characters are likeable and are portrayed with a by-the-numbers cast. Overall I just hated that these people got a chance of happiness after being such terrible people for all of their adult lives.

Lucy Hale, who I discovered in "The Hating Game", is absolutely lovely...but plays the hot mess Jane in this film. Together with Nat Wolff, who plays Will, they make up the romantic duo which starts as a simple wedding guest hook-up...but quickly and somewhat awkwardly morphs into the potential for more.

These two are well suited for one another, Hale and Wolff, with excellent chemistry. The story is unusual for a romantic comedy, in fact it tells itself rather inside out. We learn about all of their past failed relationships...the why you wouldn't want to be in a relationship with either one, but at some point you start pulling for these two.

I am not going to say this is the most romantic film, but I think young people today might identify with their plight. While not on my recommendation list, I didn't hate it. I enjoy some of the dialogue and the idea of being brutally honest from the start.

The leads met at the wedding and spent the time together talking about their past relationships.

The movie has a heart but it would have worked if they had made the story a little better. Not some of the trash that Netflix pumps regularly. But the story becomes more unbelievable as the time goes on. I can handle some improbable things but it becomes ridiculous if overdone. They spend the whole movie talking with each other. The chemistry between them is somewhat lacking. The movie rests solely on the two leads which makes the chemistry between them everything. This is good for a casual watch. But can't recommend it to anyone who is not a rom-com fanatic.

In director Peter Hutchings' pretentious romance flick "Which Brings Me To You" Nat Wolff (terrific actor - wasted here) & Lucy Hale (meh) meet at a wedding where he defers having sex til after they've shared long, competitive accounts of their love-lives (only Keith Bunin knows why (or Steve Almond & Julianna Baggott on whose novel he based this screenplay on)). It gets tedious fast, and ends up dragging excrutiatingly - mainly due to the dislikeableness of the characters, particularly Hale's. Any appeal it could have would rely on maintaining interest in the two leads... who except to themselves (and apparently each other) are not interesting at all. A turd. Flush it away.

You know, I'm sharing my first ever review here because it felt a crime this movie didn't have any and it just hit me so hard.

Not sure, either, if others will relate as well but it just hit home so hard to a relationship of the greatest love I've had that fell through due to heavy past and then on it's way to being together despite it all because love can conquer all (if you choose it).

Kind of felt very relatable. A different take on a story told in so many times and in so many ways. It felt fresh, it felt so heartbreakingly true. I felt the character's pain as my own. I felt their hope of finding the right piece of broken to make a whole as my own.

I get that this review is not some critical acclaim but it struck a chord. If you are a fan of long, deep conversations with loved ones (or someone that could be one), give it a shot. It might suprise you and you can find some of your own pain (and hope) in it.