When I started this podcast, I did so with the intent of offering honest commentary on literature and culture. The world is filled with too much mindless chatter. Perhaps my attempt at being sincere and insightful would be well-received. I had no plans to review films as that medium seems to dominate our lives too much as it is; however, I recently came across a movie that captured my imagination in ways that are still surprising to me now. I am even taken aback by its genre: romantic comedy.
Plus One, which stars Maya Erskine and Jack Quaid, tells the story of two twentysomethings – Alice and Ben, old college friends – who decide to be each other’s dates to a series of weddings. At first, they proclaim their platonic status until they finally see what everybody else has recognized for a long time: that they are good for each other, a perfect match. While the story contains the basic components of all good rom-coms – a rise in action, the first kiss, the first argument, and inevitably the heartwarming reconciliation – this film gives viewers a special look into how twentysomethings of today (millennials, perhaps) view the world. They want perfection. If a thing – to include a relationship – is not perfect then it must be abandoned. The result in an imperfect world? Loneliness. Instability. Constant searching. Restlessness. Jumping from place to place, relationship to relationship and growing in emptiness all the time.
To be in love with an impossible idea of romance, as Alice says, is to want what cannot be obtained, and it will inevitably lead a person to run away from the hard work of commitment, even when that hard work can yield true love, real love – something fully human and beautiful.
The film has its raunchy moments, and frankly, I would have preferred that it dial it down in that department. However, for all of the trendy tropes and coarse humor, the film delivers. Each of the main characters has honest moments when something of their soul is revealed and made vulnerable. Alice is clearly the instigator who loves Ben from the beginning, though he is admittedly too stupid to realize this. Her role as matchmaker is clearly a conceit to spend more time with him. The subtlety is sweet. The lightening quick shots of a smitten but hurt Alice shine a light on the weight of the unrequited love she is carrying. Viewers should have a second and even third go of the film in order to best savor the painfully slow blossoming of Ben’s affection for Alice and Alice’s commitment to see the relationship through despite Ben’s maddening lapse into blind idealism. He almost loses her – but only almost. It turns out that true love can even conquer the myopic and shallow sensibilities of a generation.
The film is good, the message, timely. It turns out we all still want the same thing, and the raunch of today is the angst or cynicism or despair of years gone by. Human beings were made for true love, and being reminded of that in a noisy, oftentimes callous world is a strike to the heart. So watch the movie. It holds up what is real. And in an age of so much falseness, it is a refreshing respite.
