On paper, Oh, Hi! has a lot going for it: a pair of appealing performers, Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, play a couple who go off on a romantic weekend that takes a turn. It should be good, but it’s not. This abysmal film fails because nothing the characters do in this movie exhibit anything even remotely resembling real human behavior.
Lerman’s Isaac and Gordon’s Iris, and they’re a cute couple that’s dated short-term, and are headed to upstate New York for their first romantic getaway. For the first 20 minutes or so, all goes smoothly, from a romantic and sexual standpoint. Then, all of a sudden, it doesn’t, due to a decision a character makes that makes no sense at that moment. The movie spirals from there, as both characters turn into people unrecognizable from what we saw from them minutes earlier.
A plot twist is one thing, but in this case it’s personality transplants. And the film never recovers—not when it abruptly changes tones, not when it brings witchcraft into the plot, and not when Iris’ annoying friends (led by Geraldine Viswanathan as her best friend and John Reynolds as the friend’s boyfriend) are brought into the mix. The first big twist is unforgivable, while the second big one is obvious. It leads up to an ending that’s unearned and makes little sense. Perhaps the film might’ve worked had it gone even crazier, but it never lands on a consistent tone.
Oh, Hi!, which debuted at Sundance in January, was written and directed by Sophie Brooks, based on a story she developed along with Gordon. One gets the sense that she was interested in creating a role for herself that would let her go for broke and act like a crazy person. Gordon’s an actress whom I like, especially in her role as the ex-girlfriend in Shiva Baby, and as the love interest on The Bear, a character who many fans of that show hate for some reason. Her movie role choices, though, haven’t always been wise, and that continues here.
The same is true of Lerman, who hasn’t been in much lately, as well as Viswanathan, who I’ve loved in everything from Drive Away-Dolls to the underrated The Broken Hearts Gallery, which also co-starred Gordon. And the considerable talents of David Cross are also wasted, in the minor role of an annoyed neighbor.
When it comes to movies from this year about a beautiful young brunette woman in a romantic relationship that abruptly goes south, Oh, Hi!, isn’t nearly as successful as Materialists or I Love You Forever.