Your Place or Mine
Reese Witherspoon’s latest romcom is a reassuringly formulaic story that brings friendship into the spotlight.
Embraceable you: Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon
This Netflix original is a witty tale whose foundations are built on books and, more importantly, stories, thirteen-year-old boys, and friendships. The prologue sets up the backstory in 2003 when Debbie Dunn (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter Coleman (Ashton Kutcher) have a one-time-only hook-up after a group poker night in LA. While they are undressing in her bedroom, Peter comments on how many books Debbie has (she’s an obsessive reader with literary ambitions) and tells her he is going to become a famous writer (he’s already written a number of short stories).
Twenty years later, Debbie and Peter have re-written their personal narratives. Debbie is now a perky, Gen X with a beloved jean jacket and more post-it notes than you can shake a stick at. She has become a neurotic, risk-assessing safety-freak and is the “Saran Wrap single mother” of sheltered thirteen-year-old Jack (Wesley Kimmel, Jimmy’s nephew) who is small for his age, has a laminated list of allergies, has lost the only friend he had because of hockey (“too dangerous”) and has lost his father because of divorce. Peter relocated from LA to NYC six months after the one-night stand (purportedly because of his fear of earthquakes) and becomes “a rolling stone who gathers no moss.” A recovering alcoholic, he is an extremely successful – not to mention incredibly good-looking and charismatic – businessman with money coming out of his pores. However, he is living a rather shallow life with a cast of girlfriends lasting no longer than six months, an amazing but soulless apartment with cutlery still in the box and glasses with price tags still on, and his books have been colour-coded by the decorator. Yet he and Debbie remain close friends, video calling on a nearly day-to-day basis – often including Jack – and each is convinced that they tell each other “Everything.”
When Debbie needs to go to NYC for a necessary course to complete her boring-but-safe accounting degree and her childcare collapses, Peter makes plans to swap homes with her for a week to rebrand Jack while she sits her final exam…
This could well be the modern cinematic version of Six Characters in Search of an Author: Ever-Practical Debbie, Good Boy Jack, No Mementos Peter, the nothing short-of-fabulous Zinka (Zoë Chao), the deliciously dry Alicia (Tig Notaro), and the somewhat wooden Theo (Jesse Williams) are each trying to rewrite – and edit – individual stories. The fun babysitter-cum-aspiring actress Scarlet (Rachel Bloom) and the uber-eccentric Buddhist volunteer gardener-stalker-minstrel Zen (Steve Zahn) round off the impressive ensemble.
Like any good book, “what happens next?” is a recurring question for both the players and the audience. Producer/writer/director Aline Brosh McKenna deserves acclaim for this witty, clever ‘bestseller.’ In a joyous way, Your Place or Mine kind of makes me want to run with scissors then soak in a bubble bath.
FRANCES PALMER CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Wesley Kimmel, Tig Notaro, Steve Zahn, Rachel Bloom, Griffin Matthews, Vella Lovell, Shiri Appleby.
Dir Aline Brosh McKenna, Pro Jason Bateman, Michael Costigan, Reese Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter and Aline Brosh McKenna, Screenplay Aline Brosh McKenna, Ph Florian Ballhaus, Pro Des William Arnold, Ed Chris A. Peterson, Music Siddhartha Khosla, Costumes Sophie De Rakoff, Sound Kami Asgar.
Aggregate Films/Lean Machine/Hello Sunshine-Netflix.
109 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 10 February 2023. Cert. 12.
