It's the age-old problem facing many college students their freshman year: do they stay or break up with their high school sweetheart? Do they give long-distance a go or move on to meet someone else from a different town on their new campus? In the case of Ben (Nico Hiraga) and Jamie (Kiernan Shipka), they're longtime friends dating two different people–Claire (Ava DeMary), who's still in high school, and Simon (Charlie Hall), who's somehow managed to get into Harvard through football. Try as Ben and Jamie have, they realize their long-distance relationships are giving them more headaches than heartwarming feelings. Simon's intense football schedule means Jamie's faking phone sex at odd hours, while Claire's constant need for communication is actively taking Ben out of classes and just one afternoon without answering his phone led to a call to campus security for a wellness check. The pair scheme with their other best friend, Palmer (Caleb Hearon), to break up with their dates in time for Thanksgiving dinner, but of course, since this is a romantic comedy, not everything goes according to plan.
Jordan Weiss's feature debut, "Sweethearts," has its charming moments but feels uneven overall. Ben and Jamie have a combative dynamic that's not very fun to watch and makes a person wonder how these two characters managed to be friends for so long. Ben is laid back to a fault, letting everyone from his demanding girlfriend to his selfish roommate walk over him. Hiraga plays him as an endearing misfit, just trying his best despite everyone's view of him. In contrast, Shipka looks a bit uncomfortable as her character, a no-nonsense young woman who's over the college experience before she's even finished her first semester. Her performance feels less natural next to her co-star's, and adds to the film's sense of unevenness.
Weiss, who co-wrote the story with Dan Brier, set up Ben and Jamie like the argumentative main characters of "When Harry Met Sally," which also appears in the world of "Sweethearts," but the story just doesn't come together as well. Ben's girlfriend Claire and Jamie's boyfriend Simon are cookie cutter nightmare stock characters that make for easy villains. These people obviously should not be together, but the film delays its conclusion by stuffing the middle with zany situations and homecoming trauma, some of which work better than others. Earlier in the film, Jamie gets trapped in an awkward situation at a house party when she tries to send a sexy selfie to Simon, and the scene morphs into an Apatow-style comedy bit that feels tonally off. Later, Jamie shares a funnier moment of catharsis with her former best friend-turned-bully, and the payoff works and doesn't overstay its welcome.
The topic of coming back home to one's small town is perhaps best explored by Ben and Jamie's other bestie, Palmer, their gay classmate who took a gap year after high school to work at Euro Disney. At first, he's introduced like a standard issue rom com gay friend with an obsession with Paris, but as Ben and Jamie's quest to break up with their partners goes off the rails, we also start to follow Palmer as he meets the local gay community he didn't know about growing up and gains a new perspective on the pressure to move to a big city for a sense of community. His scene with his alma mater's football coach (Tramell Tillman) and firefighter partner (Joel Kim Booster) is so surprisingly poignant, it steals the show from the messy straight drama unfolding elsewhere.
While "Sweethearts" can feel like a grab bag of rom com leftovers, it has its share of tender moments tucked between arguments and goofy situations. Opening with the charming stop motion animated sequence laying out Ben and Jamie's complicated situation, we're thrown into their worst first semester conundrum with an upbeat energy and music to match. Whatever happens, these characters will grow and move on from their youthful experiences. While things can get a bit bumpy on the way, it's not without its satisfying moments, including a twist at the end I won't spoil, but it's among one of the film's best surprises and is one of the more modern riffs on a romantic comedy ending I've seen lately. So while it might not make the pantheon of holiday romantic classics, "Sweethearts" pays its respects to many of the perennial favorites before it.
On Max November 28th.
