Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes this perfectly serviceable but ideas-bereft romcom, which plays like a Tesco Value-When Harry Met Sally crossed with a Middle of Lidl-The Holiday. Perhaps, in the current glut of quick, thoughtless romcoms that the streamers are presently so beholden to, that shouldn’t be a surprise, but Your Place Or Mine never aspires to being more than being just aggressively fine.
The big draw, at least according to the marketing, is to see Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher — both of whom owe their early careers to romcoms, both of whom have shied away from lead roles in recent years — sharing the screen for the first time. If that is indeed what hooked you in, prepare to be disappointed, as they barely share a frame together for more than ten minutes, most of their interactions taking place in split screen phone conversations. Undeniably, these are actors with folksy charm and A-list looks. They have charisma to spare. But with this kind of material, that only takes you so far down the road.
For the most part, the script by writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna wraps itself in the comfort blanket of the genre tropes. There are troubled kids to win over. There is a final act airport dash. There are kooky best friends who hang on the fringes, their sole purpose to offer wacky one-liners and obvious life lessons. (Tig Notaro’s bone-dry deadpannery is the clear standout of a mixed bag.) The film doesn’t even try to pretend that Debbie and Peter shouldn’t be together — one supporting character directly asks why they’re not in the first five minutes — so the usual contrivances to keep them apart feel even more absurd than they normally would.
Your Place Or Mine is simply and purely fine: merely adequate, to its marrow.
Nothing feels remotely authentic or real; even by American romcom standards, the world these characters inhabit is insanely glossy and excessively aspirational. He lives in a multi-million-dollar Brooklyn apartment with floor-to-ceiling views of the Manhattan Bridge. She lives in a palatial Beverly Hills mansion with a landscaped garden. There is much talk of “remodelling kitchens” and characters being “independently wealthy due to a tech buyout”. Who is doing the accounting on these lifestyles? How can a single mother be living in a hedge fund billionaire’s second home?
Occasionally we get flashes of a better, more insightful film. It’s mildly refreshing to see a romance between characters in their 40s, people who have lived a life already, people old enough to acknowledge how you’re “dumb when you’re in your 20s” — even if said people are implausibly, impeccably, unrealistically attractive. There are gestures, too, to darker subplots, with Peter revealed to be a recovering alcoholic, though these are avenues only tiptoed towards.
Look, Kutcher and Witherspoon are good company and lovely to look at, and you can’t begrudge them the paycheque. But ultimately, this is a romantic comedy that is neither especially romantic nor sufficiently comedic. Your Place Or Mine is simply and purely fine: merely adequate, to its marrow. It is just worth considering, before adding this to your watchlist, whether we should demand a bit more, even from sofa-based comfort-watches.
