What Happens Later

A romcom for those nostalgic for 90s and 2000s cinema

Among the films I saw at the cinema in 2024 there is “What Happens Later”, directed by Meg Ryan and starring herself together with David Duchovny.

This is a romantic comedy in which the two protagonists, 25 years after the end of their relationship, meet in a remote airport, where, waiting for their respective connections, they remain stranded for many hours due to a snowstorm.
Initially reluctant, they find themselves spending time together and end up discussing their past and what happened in their lives after they broke up.

I went to see this film to enjoy Ryan again on the big screen. I missed her so much and I’m sorry that so much time had to pass before I could see her in a new film.
I feel nostalgic for that cinema of the 90s and early 2000s, and I admit that I feared being disappointed by this vision, especially when I realised that obviously time has passed and she, at 62, is no longer the queen of romantic comedies of the past.
And yet it’s always her.
Her movements, her looks, her expressions are always the same, and for 105 minutes I let myself be carried away by the chatter of Willa, her character, and Bill, Duchovny’s.
Lots and lots of chatter.

The screenplay, co-written by Ryan herself, is based on a play by Steven Dietz. This is immediately evident from the fact that the story takes place entirely in a single location, in which in fact only two characters move:  Willa and Bill. The extras seen at the beginning tend to thin out until they disappear, and the scene is occupied by the main characters’ conversations, which spans between jokes, melancholy, and a pinch of drama.
But they are not totally alone. The third character in this story is the voice that is broadcast from the loudspeakers of the small airport and transmits announcements to the passengers. This voice occasionally intervenes in the conversations of the protagonists, creating only momentary perplexity in them.
Did it really answer, or did they just imagine it?

The title of the film refers to what happens to two people after the end of their relationship, what life they end up having without knowing about the other’s. Willa and Bill have the opportunity to tell each other about it and explain themselves after a long time, and to forgive each other.

If you too feel orphaned by that cinema, if you want to spend an hour and 45 minutes smiling, laughing, and sharing with the protagonists the difficulties they had to face in a life they didn’t spend together, I recommend you watch this film.

The Flatshare

 A British romcom lacking a bit of British humour

© Paramount Plus

I recently watched the miniseries “The Flatshare” on Paramount Plus, based on the novel with the same title by Beth O’Leary and composed of 6 episodes of approximately 45 minutes.

 

After watching “The Lovers”, about which I told you something some time ago, I threw myself into another British romantic comedy before moving on to something more challenging.

 

The basic idea from which the story starts is quite original: Tiffany and Leon, due to financial problems, are forced to share a small flat in London, but in such a way as to never meet. In fact, they share everything, including the bed, except that she can use all of this from 8pm to 8am and on weekends, while he is entitled to the time slot from 8am to 8pm (he spends the weekends at his girlfriend’s flat).

 

Tiffany works for a web magazine and has just broken up with her ex, Justin, with whom she had (and partly still has) a toxic relationship. Finding herself without a place to live and with little money, she accepted Leon’s offer.

He, on the other hand, works nights at a hospice and wants to put some money aside to try to get his brother out of prison.

 

The two have never seen each other, they do not know what each other looks like, they cannot meet or speak on the phone or via mobile phone messages, but they communicate exclusively through Post-its.

 

The idea is certainly intriguing, even if it is never made clear how they came to this agreement, given that they have never met!

 

The performance is at times hilarious, thanks also to the skill of the two main actors, Jessica Brown Findlay and Anthony Welsh, but throughout the watching, I had the impression that something was missing. Yes, because in a story set in London, there is very little trace of the British humour that would have benefited its narration so much.

 

Moreover, the supporting characters are barely mentioned, two-dimensional, which is inexplicable, given the length of the episodes and their not particularly fast pace.

 

The story is dotted here and there with various ideas, too many in fact: toxic relationships, legal problems, homosexual relationships, interracial relationships (practically all of them, except the toxic one), terminal illnesses, abandonment of the elderly and so on, but all of them are barely hinted at and often just thrown in there, almost as if, each time, one were checking a box. It would have been better to focus on a few and develop them better.

 

To this, let’s add some important twists in the economy of the story that are a bit predictable, while others are unexpected but not very convincing, such as, for example, hopeless situations that are inexplicably and suddenly resolved.

 

On the other hand, the curiosity to discover how the long-awaited happy ending will be achieved is kept alive through a continuous complication of events and by the cunning of the scriptwriters in interrupting the story always at the right moment at the end of each episode.

 

In short, it’s a fun series with some excellent strengths that at least partially manage to make us turn a blind eye to its many weaknesses.

I feel like recommending it to you.

Up For Love: a clever romantic comedy

Like many of you, I got to know for the first time Jean Dujardin thanks to his interpretation of George Valentin in “The Artist”, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Lead Actor in 2012. Then I saw him again years later in a dramatic role in “French Connection”, another film that I enjoyed very much.

In “Up For Love”, thanks to special effects, Dujardin is actually playing the role of a person with dwarfism in a hilarious comedy that also leads you to think.

His skills as an actor are once again undisputed and emerge even more in the roles in which he cannot take advantage of one of his qualities. In “The Artist” it was his voice and in this film it’s his handsomeness. Yes, because Dujardin is undoubtedly a handsome man and manages to keep intact his charm also in the role of Alexandre, who is barely one metre thirty-six centimetres tall.

I must say that the special effects, while lowering him, have not rendered faithfully the altered proportions caused by dwarfism, but applying a certain suspension of disbelief, he is convincing enough, especially in shots where you don’t see his body in full.

Beyond these technical aspects, “Up For Love” is a really nice movie.

Well, the protagonists are anything but poor devils. Alexandre is a famous architect living in a villa with a swimming pool along with his ambitious son, who for the moment is economically dependent on him (but he is bound to succeed). Diane (played by the Belgian actress Virginie Efira) is a lawyer who owns a law firm together with her former husband.

The whole context in which they move is very movie-like: parties, gallery openings, parachuting (which seems almost a no-brainer that anyone could practice), houses that seem royal palaces, secret venues, and so on.

The distribution and timing of the gags are absolutely perfect, so that the film slips away fast between a laugh and the other.

Alexandre could be the classic Prince Charming; he is charming, funny, successful, but he lacks at least forty centimetres to achieve perfection, forty centimetres that weigh a lot.

Despite some quite deliberately unrealistic elements of the plot, it is easy to step into the shoes of Diane, who, although being in love with Alexandre, suffers the judgment of others.

It can be easy to say that love overcomes all obstacles, but in reality standing alongside someone who is different creates many problems. Ignoring them and pretending they don’t matter doesn’t make them disappear, but what this little cinema gem tries to convey is that you need to be aware and find ways to deal with them day-to-day, as it should always happen between two people who decide to share their lives.

Of course, if you are rich as the main characters of “Up For Love”, it is undoubtedly easier!

In other words this is a film that combines a non-trivial reflection and comic situations, beautifully rendered by the skill of the cast (not only of the two lead actors).

After watching it you feel refreshed and in good spirits, but you haven’t completely turned off your brain for a hundred minutes.