Lucy Hale is in her rom-com era, and I’m loving it. She was in The Hating Game in in 2021, and Puppy Love in 2023. These movies aren’t the most critically acclaimed rom-coms to exist, but they’re fun and have a certain appeal, especially amongst those of us who just want to bask in the small joys of watching two people fall in love on screen. Which Brings Me to You (with the same director as The Hating Game) is pretty much in the same category, a fairly enjoyable rom-com that actually explores contemporary concerns and ideas about dating and love.
The first time Jane (Lucy Hale) and Will (Nat Wolff) lock eyes, they’re at a wedding. Will arrives late, Jane teasingly calls him out on it, and the next moment she’s suggesting that they have sex in the coat closet. Initially, Will’s game, after all, Jane is a beautiful woman. But he manages to pull away and say no, not because he doesn’t want to, but due to certain promises he had made to himself. In order to explain himself, Will starts to go into his dating history to help Jane see why he turned her down, which invites Jane to also share. It’s very Before Sunrise, with two characters connecting over the span of a day.
It’s an intimate thing to let someone peer into your memories, and I like how the film has Will and Jane present in the memory when the other is recounting it, interjecting at times to ask more questions. So despite the couple not really physically travelling to many locations, the enactment of their memories makes the film feel more expansive, as we get to learn more about them through each relationship they share.
With each story, a pattern starts to emerge. Jane has a tendency to be attracted to broken men, and then proceeds to leave them quickly to avoid damage from the fallout. Will avoids commitment and intimacy, usually leaving his relationships when things get too serious. Even though it is the film’s conceit to build Jane and Will’s relationship through showing us their break-ups with other people, I do wish the film fleshed them out beyond these spaces. Because of this narrow focus, we end up only knowing them in a shallow kind of way. We also aren’t shown much of each past romantic relationship, with the film quickly skipping to the break-up and glossing over so much context.
It’s clear that both Jane and Will are ashamed of how they treated their past relationships. Both are trying to do better, and it does seem like kismet that they’ve met each other just as they’re starting to figure themselves out. Hale and Wolff have decent chemistry together, and it’s fun to watch them banter and bicker with each other. Both actors also handle the emotional spaces of the film quite well, which allows us to really feel for their characters by the end of the film.
Perhaps the one thing that counts against Which Brings Me to You is that there isn’t anything particularly memorable about it. The “It Had To Be You” sequence comes close, but I don’t think I’ll remember it in years to come. It’s definitely a movie to be enjoyed in the moment, and has enough romantic substance to make it a decent watch.
Review screener provided.
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