Your Place Or Mine – Film Review
by Fran Winston

Directed by: Aline Brosh McKenna
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Wesley Kimmel, Tig Notaro, Steve Zahn

Streaming on Netflix February 10th

Best known as a screenwriter of huge hits such as the Devil Wears Prada and 27 Dresses and producer of movies such as Morning Glory, this is McKenna’s first foray into directing. Unsurprisingly, (if the title didn’t imply it) it is a rom-com given her previous experience in this genre.

Witherspoon and Kutcher play Debbie and Peter, two people who hooked up 20 years ago but then became BFFs. Their lives have gone in very different directions and they live on opposite sides of the country but talk daily and tell each other everything.

When Debbie’s childcare falls through just as she is about to embark on a week-long course in New York that she is desperate to do, Peter offers to stay in her house in LA to watch her son. Meanwhile, she stays in his bachelor pad in New York. Being a rom-com I’m sure you’ve already gathered that the week is a life-changing one for both of them as their priorities shift and they make several realisations.

If you put The Holiday and Uncle Buck in a blender with a smattering of When Harry Met Sally this would be the result. It is obvious from the off that this couple will end up together, so this film is all about the journey. Throw in some standard tropes such as Debbie meeting a handsome publisher who sweeps her off her feet and Peter’s ex-girlfriend showing up at his apartment and it is just a case of waiting to see how these situations resolve themselves. Basically, there is nothing new or surprising here.

Both Witherspoon and Kutcher are very likeable but, given that most of their screen time together is split screen as they are on the phone, it is hard to gauge their chemistry. This whole movie is just putting both characters into situations outside of their comfort zone so they can grow as a person and realise that they should be together.

This isn’t ground-breaking. Indeed, there is nothing really original here. But it is a sweet, if somewhat insipid, watch. It’s inoffensive and harmless and unashamedly itself (much like its leads).

This won’t make anyone’s list of films of the year but if you just want an untaxing popcorn movie then this will tick that box.