I Want You Back Synopsis: Newly dumped thirty-somethings Peter and Emma team up to sabotage their exes’ new relationships and win them back for good.
Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) have been recently dumped by their significant others. Peter, by his girlfriend of six years, Anne, and Emma, by her hunky boyfriend, Noah. They’re both heartbroken, especially when they discover their exes have already moved on to new relationships.
After a chance meeting in the building where they both work, Peter and Emma become friends and soon cook up a plan where the other will infiltrate the lives of their exes to break up their new relationships. Think Strangers on a Train in rom-com form with decidedly less…murder.
I absolutely adore Jenny Slate and Charlie Day, so I Want You Back was on my radar for quite some time. And it met my expectations. Slate and Day are two incredibly funny people, and while their comedic talent is on full display in this movie, it’s more subtle and layered than some of their other works. They have a very authentic chemistry, and, of course, you’ll root for them from their first meet cute in a building stairway.
Scott Eastwood and Gina Rodriguez play the exes, Noah and Anne. Scott Eastwood is a fine enough actor, but I kept feeling like he was trying to imitate Chris Hemsworth, who has the beauty, the brawn, and the comedic chops. Alas, Eastwood was… well, the poor man’s Hemsworth in this film. That’s not to say he was terrible – he did what was expected of him, and that’s good enough for me.
Rodriguez was also fine as Anne, the school teacher who breaks away from her cozy relationship with Charlie to start up with the middle school drama teacher, the charismatic, long-haired Logan with quite a passion for Little Shop of Horrors. Manny Jacinto, who I am so used to seeing as Jason from The Good Place, isn’t as goofy as his sitcom character, but he has his moments. Watching Emma wedge herself between Logan and Anne brought plenty of laughs, even if you realize just how wrong it is.
Which brings me to this – Emma and Peter are two people trying to break up two seemingly happy relationships. Their exes certainly don’t seem like terrible people, nor do their new significant others (Noah’s new love, Ginny, was a bore, so I won’t talk about her much here). So it would make sense to view Peter and Emma as the villains, but…dammit, you just can’t. They’re too damn lovable and charming, especially when they’re together, which makes I Want You Back work perfectly as a romantic comedy.
I Want You Back is one of those modern romantic comedies that boasts a very witty script and believable romance. The characters (save for Ginny) are all wonderfully fleshed out, making you genuinely care what happens to them. This is a rom-com I emphatically recommend and will absolutely watch again.
Watched: 02/12/2022
Notable Song: I Want You Back by The Jackson Five
