A really lovely independent movie starring the wonderful Jessica Williams as Jessica James, a 25 year old aspiring playwright living in New York who is trying to figure out her life. It's more modern twist on a romantic comedy that follows Jessica on her life's path soon after she breaks up with her boyfriend after a two year relationship. We first meet her on a tinder date and get the measure of her pretty quickly. Jessica doesn't suffer fools gladly and swerves the mushy sentiment of happily ever after preferring to be more pragmatic about what life really has to offer.
Still consumed by her ex-boyfriend she embarks on a blind date that her best friend sets up and what emerges is an unusual friendship with Boone, played by Chris O'Dowd. What makes this really really good is that the conversation and the way it's scripted and acted could be straight out of a real life date. There's no soft focus, coy hair twirling or cute flirting that we tend to see in most rom coms these days. And it's a welcome change. In fact the interaction between Williams and O'Dowd is just great and the progression of their relationship really hits the mark and pops off the screen.
Of course the entire story isn't about the two of them. It charters Jessica James' attempts to become a playwright as she teaches acting and writing classes for kids and faces rejection after rejection from the theatres she would love to work with. Throw in an awkward family occasion at her sister's baby shower and Jessica starts to realise that not everything in life is as defined as she first thought and that maybe the very things in life she was running away from are actually the things she wants.
I really enjoyed this. It was very real in the way it looked at life from a lot of different perspectives. Fresh out of a relationship, or a divorce, or a child caught up in a custody battle or somebody simply looking for direction in life and having the courage to stick with what hasn't quite worked out yet, it was more real than most hollywood rom-coms and quite rightly deserves that positive reviews it received on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
