I am a fan of gushy rom-coms that serve their purpose. Case in point, Your Place or Mine, Netflix’s newest mediocre time passer. They can make you feel better about your lot in life. Sometimes these offbeat, generic retold tales can reinvoke your enthusiasm to have another crack at the old dating pool too. Other times, they are simply unrelatable rubbish that serves no other purpose than to remind you that Hollywood isn’t always about whether you should make a movie. Sometimes it’s technically about nothing at all.
Is Your Place or Mine a Good Movie?
Considering writer and director Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the hugely popular “The Devil Wears Prada” and the “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” TV Series, “Your Place or Mine” hasn’t got much to offer.
Besties from way back, Debbie and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) “share everything.” By everything, I mean hardly anything. Sure, they can talk for hours at a time. They also seemingly know the superficial basics about each other. But for the storyline, we learn they haven’t scratched the surface. Like two humans who’ve stayed Facebook friends for 20 years because they slept together once when they were teenagers, Debbie and Peter have a lot to learn about each other.
The only difference between the general type of Facebook friends and these two people is that they opt for lengthy video chats. While the rest of us are putting our best lives forward on our public feed and writing infrequent online messages to stay in touch, these two are popping in at each other’s business “face to virtual face.”
So how do Debbie and Peter end up crossing paths in real life then? I’m glad you asked. In Your Place or Mine, Debbie wants to finish her business degree or accounting degree, or some baseless avenue like that. So Peter offers his swanky high-rise apartment for her to stay in. However, Debbie’s best friend, who had offered to look after her teenage son, is offered a bit part in a role she had tried out for. So, at the final hour, she says she can’t do it. Like a knight in shining armor, Peter decides he will fly up and look after her son, Jack, for the week in her stead. They can just swap houses.
Films with Reese Witherspoon
It’s at this point that Your Place or Mine becomes relatively interesting for a second or two. Peter dives headfirst into his first foray into parenthood, and it’s a relatively cute scenario. Peter has always accused Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) of wrapping her son Jack in cotton wool. In reverse, Debbie thinks Peter is devoid of emotion.
While in Peter’s apartment, Debbie befriends one of his many revolving-door women, and we find out that both Debbie and Peter like books. Subsequnetly, the woman who turns up (Zoe Chao) to shag Peter while he’s on the rebound is the most fun thing about the film. Despite a lot of narrative balls being thrown into the air involving lots of uninteresting plot points, Your Place or Mine always feels like it might head somewhere that will make this film worth the 1-hour 49-minute runtime. It doesn’t.
Ashton Kutcher Movies
Witherspoon and Kutcher individually are usually a delight to watch on screen. The same can be said about their performances in “Your Place or Mine” too. Unfortunately, they don’t amount to much on screen together. As best friends, I bought it. As two long-lost lovers who missed out on 20 years without each other, because they are supposedly in love, I didn’t buy it for a second. Not even when they finally realize, which is the gist of the whole film.
What I did buy into was the handsome publishing house executive (Jesse Williams) becoming someone who is now afflicted with a future pessimism towards romance. In fact, after putting himself out there the way he did, I wouldn’t be surprised if he bought ten cats and lived his life alone after meeting Debbie.
Where to Watch Your Place or Mine
You can watch Your Place or Mine on Netflix. If you want. But I don’t recommend it.
Your Place or Mine is rated
2 watchable but boring romantic comedies out of 5
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