Look Both Ways

In Wanuri Kahiu’s entertaining romcom, Texan graduate Natalie Bennett finds her future divided into dual realties.

Sliding lives: Lili Reinhart and Danny Ramirez

Remember writer-director Peter Howitt’s Sliding Doors (1997) which had two parallel stories about the same woman? The scenario went in different directions depending on whether or not she caught her train. Look Both Ways has a similar take about budding animator Natalie Bennett (Lili Reinhart) who is desperate to work for the Tall Story animation studio in Los Angeles. However, her progress comes to a halt when she discovers she is pregnant, even though her best buddy and one-night stand Gabe (Danny Ramirez) took the necessary precautions. Now Natalie is worried that she will have no life except that of a young mother, but there are two possibilities. One is not getting pregnant and moving to L.A. with her girlfriend Cara (Aisha Dee), while the other is staying with her parents in Texas and bringing up the child with Gabe’s help.

Well, if you cannot decide in which direction to go, then why not split your life into two? When Gabe proposes marriage, Natalie turns him down as she wants them to have the child, but without being a proper couple. However, when she learns what a great time Cara is having in L.A., she becomes depressed but still sets about designing the bedroom anyway for her new daughter Rosie. Although regretting missing out on L.A., she seems content living with her parents. And even with the baby’s father on tap, Natalie encourages Gabe to find another girlfriend.

Taking a break in L.A. with Cara, Natalie begins her alternative life when she meets Jake (David Corenswet) and they click. She looks for a job and is taken on by Rick and Tall Story boss Lucy Galloway (Nia Long) who also employs Jake. Natalie and Jake date and become a couple but then Jake is offered a job in Nova Scotia and it all goes sour. Natalie returns to her parents and the film's conceit is that, while one Natalie becomes an illustrator on a comic book, the other Natalie makes a prize-winning film. Coincidentally, both works are entered in an animation festival to which the two Natalies and Jake turn up. The rest, as they say, is questionable: so which direction does Natalie take? Go figure...

The double-whammy of a plot with its parallel timelines keeps its audience guessing because there are in effect two Natalies and two possible lifestyles. Still, the cast manage to circumvent any chance of our disbelief not being suspended because as Natalie, Lili Reinhart remains creditably real. With helpful support from Danny Ramirez and David Corenswet as Gabe and Jake, Aisha Dee as Cara, and Luke Wilson and Andrea Savage as Tina and Rick (as Natalie’s disbelieving parents), Look Both Ways is an enjoyable, two-timing romp.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Lili Reinhart, Danny Ramirez, Aisha Dee, Jaden Tolliver, David Corenswet, Luke Wilson, Nia Long, Amanda Knapic, Ashlyn Anderson Gomez, Andrea Savage, Sarah J. Bartholomew.

Dir Wanuri Kahiu, Pro Jessica Malanaphy and Bryan Unkeless, Screenplay April Prosser, Ph Alan Caudillo, Pro Des Keith Bryan Burns, Ed Brad Leach, Music Drum & Lace and Ian Hultquist, Costumes Colin Wilkes.

Catchlight Studios/Screen Arcade-Netflix.
110 mins. USA. 2022. Rel: 17 August 2022. Cert. 12.