The modern dating scene is not a healthy one. Perhaps it never really was and everyone is nostalgic for something that didn’t exist. But you don’t need to be on the apps to sense the anxiety around. Just open the New York Times Magazine site and scroll through the 1,200 comments on Jean Garnett’s “The Trouble With Wanting Men,” in which she examines unfulfilled desire and the idea of “heterofatalism.”
We wonder what happened to the romantic comedy. Maybe we’re all to blame. How can we have fun with stories about romance when it is so bleak out there? But thank goodness for the filmmakers who are trying to, if not make sense of it all, talk about it. Celine Song did it in her own way with Materialists. And now comes Sophie Brooks’ Oh, Hi! about a new-ish couple on their first weekend away together. These movies are not at all similar, and yet both speak to the current mood in valuable ways.
In Oh, Hi! Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) seem to be very much in sync as a pair, singing in the car together, laughing about a little accident that results in the purchase of hundreds of strawberries and excitedly exploring the very nice house they’ve rented for this romantic getaway. The chemistry is there: There’s humor, wit, conversation and attraction. They’re even on the same page on more intimate matters. It is a terrific opening — nothing is really happening, and yet it’s pleasant to just be in the moment with them.
But then things take a turn. We know they’re headed south from the first frame, when a distraught Iris greets her friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) at the country home late one night. We’re trained to expect that it’s all leading to a fight, or a breakup. Oh, Hi!, however, has other things up its sleeve.
