Movie Review
Dealing with time has its own quantum mechanical implications, but Meet Cute focuses on something else; his protagonist's faded mind to find the perfect love. However, if you're going into Meet Cute expecting something like About Time, you'd probably rather go back in time and not see it. Unfortunately, this Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson starrer doesn't even come close.
Sheila sits across from Gary (Pete Davidson) at the bar and looks at him curiously. At the behest of bartender Phil, he approaches and offers her a drink. There's very little familiarity in the conversation, interspersed with awkward but sweet exchanges. But it's clear that Sheila knows "something" more about them than Gary.
Finally, the night ends with Sheila admitting to being a time traveler and proving it to Gary by quoting intimate details of her life. Gary is furious, only to find himself sitting in front of Sheila a hundred more times, and the cycle continues.
The themes are familiar and once the catch is established, it all comes down to the charm of the actors and the writing to back them up. In short, both markers are met through the first few exchanges. We are fooled into thinking that this installation might have something special to attract us.
After a while the story pacing stagnates and the main character gets stuck like Sheila. Director Alex Lehmann tries to make his story in the tradition of the great thematic generation of Meet Cute. There is even a sequence that takes us back to the Eternal Sun of Immaculate Mind; to go back into someone's past and figure out what's wrong with them.
But it does so without the nuance and emotional depth of Charlie Kaufman's human insights. Like many other parts, this one rolls over according to runtime. By the same token, cutting doesn't make a movie look prettier, but doing so at the expense of what you're offering the viewer is probably not a wise creative choice.
Relatable Character
Meet Cute's main problem is that it fails to give us relatable characters, even if the movie is all about warming to us. The writers missed a trick by deliberately writing their protagonists as troubled people without a discovery process where we can see things take shape. With Gary and Sheila, we are given ready-made flaws that play with words rather than visuals.
They are more alien to the audience because of the film's climax, which is problematic in itself. But when we see it on screen, the end result is not satisfactory. Perhaps Lehman's vision and wanting the network runtime to fit into a specific slot scuttled the plan altogether. Cuoco and Davidson do not have the support of the script.
As a result, their performance is low. Not that they give a bad performance, but they have nothing to build on and make their characters unique. Davidson comes close to releasing a typical stamp on Gary, but the writing prevents him from making an impact.
Performances
Cuoco's performance of Sheila seemed a bit problematic to me. You can see Cassie's strong looks without the comic undertones. It was running on borrowed conviction, and maybe you can't blame Cuoco for that. She drew on the character of Sheila from her real-life experience and through other roles she played. Nevertheless, their presence is the only thing that makes Meet Cute watchable.
Speaking of the third act, Gary's sudden change of arc to being the "savior" for the hapless Sheila made no sense. Although the film begins in the exact opposite way - with Sheila trying to "save" Gary from loneliness and pain - it ends with a sad role reversal.
The bridge scene was ultimately perhaps the most important juncture for Meet Cute. Being able to flip paint to both sides was critical. What we see destroys any chance of redemption for the story. Even Gary's trip back in time, which was supposed to be a tectonic event in the movie, was really dull.
Meet Cute has our tip to skip. It never becomes a full-fledged narrative about two people struggling to find love - as it should be - it's limited to coming across as a scrappy children's diary done with little authenticity.
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