Picoreview: What Happens Later – not what I was expecting.
editor’s note: I saw this last Decemberish, and while writing up another picoreview realized I hadn’t posted my picoreview of it here, so I’m doing that now, as if it was a new watch. :)
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I only heard about this a few days ago: on the surface, it appeared to be a Meg Ryan romcom with David Duchovny as the leading man, which, well: I figured it was either going to be quite wonderful or quite terrible.
It was neither, but more importantly, it wasn’t a romcom, either. It’s actually about two people who were lovers a long time ago, who run into each other at an airport that both of their flights have been diverted to because of a once in a century storm. They hash out what really went wrong with their relationship and some of what’s wrong with their lives now, while the airport announcement system occasionally addresses them directly.
So really, it’s closer to a women’s fiction* drama forced into romcom trappings by Meg Ryan’s presence and, as it turns out, directorial decisions. There are funny moments, but there’s as much well-sold poignancy. It’s also an adaptation of a play, and I’d be kind of interested to see it on stage.
Anyway, I’m, like…not sorry I saw it? I wish I’d known what it actually was going in? I am glad I didn’t make my husband come see it with me because he would not have enjoyed it. Although, God, it’s only 104 minutes and felt like about 2 and a half hours, so that’s not so great.
*Women’s fiction is a North American/Anglosphere version of magical realism, where there’s often some vaguely magical bit that the story relies on and we accept: Practical Magic, The Lake House, Age of Adelaide, that kind of thing.