Oh, Hi!

Bluesky

Ah, relationships, first you have to attract someone’s attention and then comes the tricky bit – sustaining it. Sophie Brooks definitely succeeds on the first count, although as her darkly comic skewering of modern love continues, you can’t help but wonder if she hasn’t stolen quite a lot of her own thunder by beginning it at the halfway mark. This is just one of a number of structural problems that beset Oh, Hi!, which starts with a great premise but seems increasingly uncertain with what to do with it.

That midway encounter between Iris (Molly Gordon) and her best buddy Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) makes it clear that not everything in the relationship garden is rosy. It’s all a far cry from the scene 33 hours earlier, where Brooks spins us back to, as Iris heads for a weekend away with newish boyfriend Isaac (Logan Lerman). The pair are apparently still in dream date territory, dueting Dolly Parton and throwing their kit off as soon as possible.

Everything zips along with peppy verve until the couple discover a bondage gear stash in the closet and decide to give it a whirl. But to misquote an old saying, it’s all fun and games until someone loses what they’ve got their eye on – which, in Iris’ case, is long-term commitment. It’s unfortunate for Isaac that he chooses to tell Iris his view of their relationship differs drastically from hers when he is still handcuffed to the bed. Having started where she did, there’s initially the suggestion that Brooks might take the plunge into full-on Misery territory but, she opts instead for farcical comedy that isn’t nearly funny enough, even with – or quite possibly because of – the addition of Max and her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds).

If either the sense of danger associated with Isaac’s position was greater or the well of comedy ran deeper Brooks could have been on to something. As it is, she ties herself in knots trying to stay “nice” about everyone involved, when something more acidic is called for. It’s a shame because there is some sharp scrutiny of the pitfalls of modern dating and Gordon and Lerman are likeable leads.

While the desire – quite prevalent in indie films these days – not to paint anyone as a ‘bad’ guy may be an honorable one, in this case it's a decision that robs both the comedy and the drama of their potential and leaves the film staggering rather than racing to a conclusion.

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