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When We First Met
Entertainment is provided in the 2018 comic fantasy When We First Met, despite an overly complex screenplay that liberally borrows from past movie classics which sets up one story but ends up telling another.
This Netflix original opens with a young man named Noah attending the engagement party of Avery and Ethan that flashes back to a Halloween party three years earlier where Noah and Avery meet and seem absolutely perfect for each other but somehow Noah gets relegated to the "Friends zone", but Noah gets to travel back to that fateful Halloween party and possibly figure out went wrong and make Avery the girl of his dreams.
John Whittingham's screenplay does provide a spark of originality even though it does borrow from movies like Back to the Future and Groundhog Day but doesn't apologize for it either...when Noah first realizes what is going on, we hear Huey Lewis singing "The Power of Love" filling the audio and we're certain that Noah is going to be allowed to change his destiny as Avery's friend. As Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day, Noah utilizes information he learned to manipulate Avery and it initially looks like Noah is going to manipulate his destiny and that the opening scene engagement party was a red herring.
Every time Noah hops into that photo booth to return to that fateful Halloween party, we think he's going to get closer to Avery, but that's not quite what happens here, though, as in Back to the Future we do see Noah's machinations have a positive effect on his future, even though each times he goes back in time, he seems to become a little more of a jerk so I guess the message here is to not mess with destiny though the film initially sets up the premise that Noah can do this and because I went with this, I found it hard to get behind the conclusion that this romantic fantasy took me to.
I must credit director Ari Sandel for his meticulous attention to continuity, making each return to that 2014 Halloween party credible, serving the story, even if it wasn't the story I really wanted to see. I was also charmed by Adam Devine's terrific performance as Noah, which effectively anchored the proceedings and Tiffani Amber Thiessen-look-alike Alexandra Daddario was charming as Avery, but the story made a journey to a disappointing conclusion that I couldn't quite get behind, but fun is provided here and Devine proves to be an actor to watch.
Entertainment is provided in the 2018 comic fantasy When We First Met, despite an overly complex screenplay that liberally borrows from past movie classics which sets up one story but ends up telling another.
This Netflix original opens with a young man named Noah attending the engagement party of Avery and Ethan that flashes back to a Halloween party three years earlier where Noah and Avery meet and seem absolutely perfect for each other but somehow Noah gets relegated to the "Friends zone", but Noah gets to travel back to that fateful Halloween party and possibly figure out went wrong and make Avery the girl of his dreams.
John Whittingham's screenplay does provide a spark of originality even though it does borrow from movies like Back to the Future and Groundhog Day but doesn't apologize for it either...when Noah first realizes what is going on, we hear Huey Lewis singing "The Power of Love" filling the audio and we're certain that Noah is going to be allowed to change his destiny as Avery's friend. As Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day, Noah utilizes information he learned to manipulate Avery and it initially looks like Noah is going to manipulate his destiny and that the opening scene engagement party was a red herring.
Every time Noah hops into that photo booth to return to that fateful Halloween party, we think he's going to get closer to Avery, but that's not quite what happens here, though, as in Back to the Future we do see Noah's machinations have a positive effect on his future, even though each times he goes back in time, he seems to become a little more of a jerk so I guess the message here is to not mess with destiny though the film initially sets up the premise that Noah can do this and because I went with this, I found it hard to get behind the conclusion that this romantic fantasy took me to.
I must credit director Ari Sandel for his meticulous attention to continuity, making each return to that 2014 Halloween party credible, serving the story, even if it wasn't the story I really wanted to see. I was also charmed by Adam Devine's terrific performance as Noah, which effectively anchored the proceedings and Tiffani Amber Thiessen-look-alike Alexandra Daddario was charming as Avery, but the story made a journey to a disappointing conclusion that I couldn't quite get behind, but fun is provided here and Devine proves to be an actor to watch.