"I Want You Back", 2022

Review of the film "I want you back" - a witty romantic comedy about "evil ex"

The perfect rom-com for a lonely Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day traditionally divides people into two types: those who happily become hostages of candy-bouquet hysteria, and those who, in horror, try to hide from the "love" fever that has captured the whole world. Against the backdrop of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the general trend towards the rejection of live communication, the percentage of “seconds” has definitely begun to prevail over the “firsts” - this is evident not only from sociological statistics, but also from trends in cinema, which is increasingly turning to the genre of anti-Valentine rom-coms on The 14th of February.

However, the new Amazon Prime Video, called “I want you back,” somehow manages to sit on two chairs at once: having a rather non-trivial plot plot, the film unfolds along a classic romantic path that works win-win even for modern viewers.

Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) become "friends in misfortune" after they are dumped almost simultaneously by their partners. During a long period of joint suffering, the main characters develop a whole strategy for the return of their soul mates, who, as it turned out, quickly found a replacement for them and generally live happily ever after. As their cunning plans are implemented, Peter and Emma do not immediately notice how they turn into truly close people to each other.

While the genre of romantic comedy is in a protracted process of self-identification, some filmmakers are trying to bring archetypal romantic plots to the current realities - you don’t need to go far for an example, “First Passer” with Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson is just one of these, while others with different levels success, they strive to enter a new type of dialogue with the viewer and, in general, change the focus of perception of seemingly long-told stories.

The creators of “I want to return you”, in fact, enter the territory of “evil exes”, completely unknown within the genre discourse, the same people who in the average rom-coms act as annoying sidekicks or, at worst, formal antagonists, while the main characters understand their love affairs. By and large, Peter and Emma are the real antagonists, doing everything possible to destroy the relationship of their happier exes. However, thanks to the fact that the main roles are played by two famous American comedians - Charlie Day ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") and Jenny Slate ("Parks and Recreation") - formal antagonists quickly turn into charming anti-heroes that can arouse sympathy from the audience.

Notably, "I Want You Back" was written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who gave us the first LGBTQ rom-com "Love, Simon" and "How I Met Your Dad", both tapes, to one degree or another, are also uncomplicated love stories. , told as if from a “different angle”. At the same time, the “I want you back” story arc itself unexpectedly refers to one of the crazy ideas of Charlie Day’s character in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which adds to everything that happens on the screen of postmodern irony, without which no normal film can do now.

But the main advantage of this romcom, perhaps, lies in the fact that it is easy to recognize themselves in the heroes of Peter and Emma - a little infantile, people stuck in the labyrinth of life, ready to go to any, even the most desperate tricks, so as not to stray there alone.