Romancefest 2016: What If

I was just thinking, it's time for an Irish/Canadian co-production. That's what Romancefest 2016 needs. Luckily Michael Dowse's 2013 flick WHAT IF is here to fill that role. I saw this trailer a bunch of times the year the movie came out and thought it looked pretty cute but never got to the theater for whatever reason. I guess I was always too busy watching something else. You know sometimes the more movies you see the harder it is to see movies.

Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame stars as a recently dumped, bitter 20-something who thinks love sucks so badly that he starts making refrigerator magnet poetry about it at a party. But Zoe Kazan shows up and lights up his life, even though she already has a boyfriend (Rafe Spall). So, they become buddies and everyone's like "Can a chick and a dude really be friends without getting together?" The answer is obviously yes but since this is a romantic comedy you know they'll bone.

So this flick is squarely aimed at a younger generation, and all that implies. It's kind of caught between two worlds: it wants to be all indie and twee and cute and quirky but also wants to be a traditional rom-com. I think it does the traditional rom-com stuff better than it does the pseudo-indie stuff. The thing is, there's nothing shameful about being a straight out rom-com. You don't have to hide behind animated interludes or other things that were cooler back when other movies did them.

Still, Radcliffe is likable enough to carry the movie and make it okay. It's interesting because the character he's given to play kind of a simpering asshole. It's clear to everyone but him that he's in love with Zoe Kazan, but he maintains this fantasy that he only has the best intentions to be her buddy, right up until he decides it's time to drop the, "I love you" bomb. On one hand, if you really are honest with yourself, you can probably identify with being a little two faced and self serving when no one's looking. On the other, it doesn't make the most likable protagonist.

But, like I said, Radcliffe overcomes it. I don't know if I'm programmed to like him since I know he used to be Harry Potter, or if he was Harry Potter because some genius in casting knew he'd be irresistably likable. Either way, he deserves to be in more (and better) movies. Luckily he has a long career ahead of him.

Adam Driver is on hand as Radcliffe's best bud and it's cool to see him in a pre-Kylo Ren role, but he's pretty much the only standout in the cast other than the central couple.

The movie was lulling me into being totally on board in the early scenes, but it had a weird mixture of tones where I'd be sitting there thinking it was a nice little flick and then suddenly something wacky would happen, like a character would fall all the way out a window and crash to the sidewalk below, seriously injured, and I'm supposed to think it is funny. And I'd think, oh, okay, so it's THAT kind of movie now. Then it'd get back to being good and I'd forget about the window and relax and start to like it and then another character would fall all the way down a staircase and I'm supposed to laugh again. And I'd think, oh, yeah, it's THAT kind of movie.

One other thing that annoyed me was Zoe Kazan's character's name was Chantry. Chantry? It sounds like the kind of name Radcliffe's character would make up if he was writing a screenplay based on this movie. There should have been a scene where she introduces herself to someone who doesn't understand her name and she goes, "Chantry. Rhymes with pantry."

But I'm just cranky. The movie was okay.