Written and directed by Michael J. Weithorn, the romantic comedy “The Best You Can” re-teams real-life couple Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon for the first time in over twenty years (in 2004, they co-starred in two films: “Cavedweller” and “The Woodsman“). I wish I could report that the wait was worth it; unfortunately, much like their pairing in last year’s “Space Oddity,” a sci-fi-tinged romantic comedy that Sedgwick directed and featured Bacon, the film doesn’t quite work.
Weithorn’s film begins at dinner in a ritzy restaurant where Dr. Cynthia Rand (Sedgwick) is explaining, a little too enthusiastically, to her dinner companions about the age difference between herself and her husband Warren (Judd Hirsch, solid, as always). The couple, we learn, got together when Cynthia was in her thirties, Warner in his fifties. Warren, she explains, “was a man, a fully evolved, remarkable man.” On cue, Warrens reappears back at their table, a little bit confused, talking to himself, before sitting down at the wrong table. Cynthia laughs uncomfortably as she helps him back to his seat.
Eventually, we learn that Warren is now 83 years old and was once the Assistant Chief Counsel on the prosecution team that brought down Nixon during the Watergate scandal. Now, he is showing signs of dementia. This is something Cynthia had not planned for, and although she loves her husband, it’s also revealing doubts she must have long harbored about the decision she made to get with him all those years ago.
The film then cuts to Stan Olszewski (Bacon) getting a prostate exam. We quickly learn he’s got an issue that is causing him to urinate frequently. It may just be a bacterial infection, but it could also be cancer. Stan works for the Brooklyn Private Security Patrol, a security service staffed solely by ex-cops.
The two meet cute when Cynthia hears a possible prowler in her Brooklyn brownstone—Warren forgot to set the alarm—and she calls the security service. After securing the premises, Stan asks to use her bathroom. It’s here that we learn she is a urologist, of course. She offers to consult on his case as a thank you for helping her. From her lusty gaze, it’s also because she’s clearly attracted to Stan.
This being a screwball-style romantic comedy, the formula dictates that there must be several relationships being juggled, so Bacon is also having a casual fling with the twenty-something cashier, CJ (Olivia Luccardi), who works at his local bodega. In one scene, she tells him he’s got that “hot older guy thing… and that big pistol.” In lesser actors’ hands, this scene would be cringey, but Bacon’s charm and Luccardi’s nonchalant Gen Z frankness carry it to the finish line.
Once the players are in place, the film cuts back and forth between Cynthia and Stan as they deal with the main struggles in their lives. Cynthia is in denial about her husband’s dementia as she tries to help him write his Watergate book, first by hiring an actual grad school assistant, and later by hiring a caregiver (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) to pretend to be a grad school assistant. She must also contend with Warren’s adult daughter, Rosemary (a delightfully passive-aggressive Heather Burns), who has her own plans for her father as he heads into his sunset years. Stan spends his days trying to make up for lost time with his adult daughter, Sammi (Brittany O’Grady), whom he all but abandoned as a child, by supporting her as she pursues her dream of being a singer. Despite his heart being in the right place, he spends more time lecturing her, rather than actually supporting her in any meaningful way.
As Cynthia and Stan work through their personal issues, they form a friendly doctor-patient relationship, one that quickly evolves into an epistolary relationship via text message, which soon gives way to full-blown daily conversations over the phone. Their conversations, while vaguely flirty, primarily consist of ragging on the younger generations and reminiscing about the older media they once loved, like “The Patty Duke Show” (where, for those who don’t remember, Duke played identical cousins) and “Tooter Turtle.” But soon their intimate bubble bursts as their personal issues collide, causing their fantasy life to give way to real life, with all its hurt, jealousy, and loss.
While all the actors are doing the, uh, best they can with the film’s limp script, its aim remains muddled. It doesn’t really have anything insightful to say about age-gap relationships. It doesn’t really have anything to say about fidelity. It doesn’t really have anything insightful to say about the generation gap between younger Boomers and Gen Z. There are some drips of social commentary about the failing economy via the economic disparity between Cynthia and Stan. But it’s not explored with any depth. There’s also some truly blatant product placement for the Roku doorbell camera that is incredibly cringey. Especially given the way that contemporary American society has embraced the same surveillance state that Warren’s career was built on exposing.
It’s clear that the irrepressibly charming Sedgwick and Bacon love to share the screen, and it is an absolute joy to watch their effortless chemistry. I just wish it were in a better picture.
