Set It Up

It has some fantastic one-liners and generally great dialogue and chemistry between the leads. I was especially happy seeing Zoey Deutch in a movie that deserves her. I've always found her charming, but her prior leads roles were in Vampire Academy and Dirty Grandpa, which didn't inspire confidence in her career.

The only things keeping me from truly loving this is that it's predictable in the end, and more importantly the score was an abomination ripped straight out of a Hallmark Channel original movie. It felt like someone flicking me in the face for 90 minutes.

This movie has a little bit of everything. It makes you feel good watching and the main characters are awesome.

Initial Thoughts: Though a couple of years old, it was refreshing to watch a rom-com that was clean, and yet not so clean, that it was mushy and inane. All the actors brought about their own personalities that worked in unison with each others. Nothing about this film was weird or awkward, and although the ending was predictable, this was a fun story to watch.

Pros: The biggest positive that I have on the movie is the actual filming. You can tell all the way through that they didn't close streets and sidewalks off. Although distracting at times it was fun to have normal fluidity within the frame. Though some say otherwise the story was well written in my opinion. Through all the ways of trying to make the bosses fall in love to finding personal inner strength to overcome obstacles in their own lives this film definitely has an enjoyable story.

Cons: Chemistry amongst actors wasn't consistently strong throughout, and when the smaller parts of the story started to slide or wonder, so did my attention span. When my attention span started to go. I started to notice the background even more. Yes, I said I enjoyed the fluidity of the scenes because it wasn't scripted people walking by, but if you're like me and you try to catch something sneaky, or notice inconsistencies throughout the film, you'll definitely be distracted in this one, as the film crews never shutdown any parts of New York. Because they never closed down sections for filming you constantly have people standing around and watching what's happening.

Overall: Alas, a non-sappy rom-com that is good for any date night. Again, it was nice to see a clean romantic comedy that wasn't full of constant one night stands, or just about partying. There is some of language throughout, but in my opinion, not enough to ruin the entire movie.

Enjoy the show!

I'm disappointed in all of the harsh criticism. This movie was fun and lovable. They set the tone for what to expect in the very beginning. "Over-acting?" It's a romantic comedy for crying out loud. I recommend this movie for the perfectly-delivered, witty dialogue. As an added bonus, the chemistry between Zoey and Glen was fantastic.

Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell reunite after the excellent Everybody Wants Some (2016) in this low frills, high-chemistry rom-com. There isn't much to dwell on here, as 'Set It Up' proves the ideal low-stakes Friday night Netflix watch.

Deutch and Powell play Harper and Charlie, two young and ambitious characters working for a very special brand of pushy, domineering bosses. When they realize their common predicament, they set out to...set up their bosses, in the hope that it will lead to quality of life improvements for themselves. In an ironic twist, the ones being pushed around leverage their insights into personal scheduling and personal preferences to ensure the mis-match ends up matching. As is usual for mischievous do-gooders, there will be fraternizing and moral conundruming. And it will be fun.

Any successful rom-com hinges on the compatibility of its leads. Luckily, that's not an issue here, with both potential couples gelling or not gelling just as intended. It's the energy of all four key characters that keeps the movie alive, thanks to the odd piece of witty writing or amusing situation. I think I only rolled my eyes once at some ultra-corny moment that could have been avoided, but beyond that, director Claire Scanlon works gently and fairly with her characters. Everybody learns an important life lesson by the end and, surprisingly, it's a lesson I relate to, although I've never had the issue of overworking myself in order to avoid pursuing my passions. There are other, more pleasureful ways of doing it.