Which Brings Me to You Movie Review: A harmless rom-com that works only on a surface-level

Which Brings Me to You belongs to a type of romance film where both the leads get to know each other through the course of a day. While Before Sunrise is the crown jewel of this kind of film, there have been several such films, especially with the rise of the OTT. How much you might enjoy Which Brings Me to You depends completely on your liking for this very specific kind of film. 

Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff play Jane and Will, two charming youngsters with inconsequential, rom-com-ish professions (he’s a photographer, she’s a journalist). When they first meet each other, they casually talk, with no intention of meeting each other ever again. But of course, we’ve seen rom-coms, and we know the basic beats. So, we sit and wait to see how this film stands out. Which Brings Me to You does this by showing us alternating narrative flashbacks about Will and Jane’s past relationships, and we see Will and Jane participating in these flashbacks, interacting with each other’s former selves. In theory, this is a great idea, and this idea works for a while. Both Hale and Wolff are in good form, and even the supporting characters are cast well. I particularly loved Hale’s performance. Initially, Hale's expressions convey how her character is clearly interested but also hesitant. There is a sense of protective layer slowly coming undone. He offers her pie and takes the offer back, and she exclaims, “Are you reneging on your pie offer?” He does an Irish Goodbye on someone, and she says, “The Irish Goodbye?” Before she wants to ask a question that will make her get to know him more, she pauses for a moment and says, “I have a question.” These little touches add more authenticity to the character than the absurd number of flashbacks.

Every other dialogue is a flirtatious line, a self-deprecating joke, or an amused discovery about the other person. And it feels like it isn't the film trying to keep us interested, but rather Will and Jane trying to come across as funny to each other. Characters come and go for mere seconds, they add no weight to the plot but they keep things interesting. There is someone who wants to sleep with Will’s older girlfriend. There is a druggie younger brother. There is a couple who sort out their differences in the bed. Most of these touches exist only to bring a smile or light a bulb in the viewer’s head, and Which Brings Me to You would have ended up as a perfectly predictable, derivative feel-good watch if it had carried on this approach.

The music is derivative: Upbeat music plays for upbeat scenes and poetic music plays for poetic scenes. The cinematography is derivative: Most of the scenes are center-framed and neatly lit. Even the kinds of things the characters do are derivative. Walk. Eat a dessert. Sit on the beach. Walk more. Go to a bar. Drop someone at their place. Oh, and walk again.

The issue with the film begins when it tries to weave in so many themes into the flashbacks that none of Will and Jane’s past relationships make us feel anything. We get a socially anxious alcoholic, a nerdy lawyer, a relationship between a college kid and an older woman, commitment issues, cheating, mental health issues, and a father-daughter angle—the film struggles to extract meaningful insights out of these portions. We are only told what happened to these characters, we never understand how it made them feel.

Logic is one of the things that barely matters in a rom-com. However, when Will and Jane tell each other why they think they will make a good pair, it is only told through two big lines of dialogue, but it doesn’t seem to make logical sense. It doesn’t feel like something these characters would do. After a major reveal about Will comes way late into the narrative, we are immediately rushed to the climax, with almost no time spent on how this makes Jane feel. 

Which Brings Me to You sacrifices all potential for emotional heft, which isn't wrong. But when the film tries to bring in-depth emotions and plummets past it without spending enough time, it feels neither simple nor nuanced.