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I Want You Back is the latest Valentine’s release from Amazon Studios. While the trailers portray the movie as a forgettable run-of-the-mill romantic-comedy, I Want You Back is surprisingly funny and cute.
After being dumped by their partners, Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) team up to win their exes back by sabotaging their new relationships. Peter befriends Noah (Scott Eastwood), and Emma volunteers at the school where Anne (Gina Rodriguez) is helping her new boyfriend Logan (Manny Jacinto) create the school play.
While it’s not the greatest movie in the world, I Want You Back still managed to exceed my expectations, and it made me laugh out loud multiple times — particularly Jenny Slate. Slate has already proven herself to be an excellent comedian with successful appearances in Bob’s Burgers and Parks and Recreation, and she helps bring some great comedy panache to the forefront of an otherwise “okay” script.
Charlie Day continues to do what he’s best at, and despite some becoming tired of his usual schtick, it really worked for his character as it helped him stand out against Eastwood’s buff gym junkie Noah and Logan’s sensitive artist personality. Day’s performance is also well contrasted with Slate, and as they plan their schemes, their matching persona’s lend to some of the best scenes in the entire movie.
Eastwood flexes his comedy muscles, and while he doesn’t have too many humorous scenes, what he’s given works, and he proves himself to be a perfectly capable comedic actor, even if some scenes come off as unbelievable. There is a scene midway through the film where Day and Eastwood’s characters have taken drugs, and Eastwood’s acting reminded me of how drama students act drunk. It wasn’t believable, but oddly, it worked fine and helped add to the ridiculousness of the scene.
My biggest gripe with the movie doesn’t come from the performances; in fact, it’s the lack of one which bothered me. Noah quickly moves on from Emma and falls madly in love with bakery owner Ginny (Clark Backo). We’re led to believe that she’s the most perfect person he has ever met, and yet, we hardly ever see her. Because of this, we don’t get to know Emma at all and must take Noah’s word alone.
Despite appearing prominently on the posters (with name credit and all), Backo is hardly in the movie. She doesn’t appear for about thirty minutes and has less than five scenes. I don’t know whether her scenes were cut down in favour of the other characters, but the lack of prominence for her makes no sense when we spend so much time with Emma’s plot to break Anne and Logan up. Instead of seeing Peter’s plan to break Noah and Ginny up, we see them simply hanging out for the purpose of creating comedic moments.
While it’s not the best, I Want You Back is one of the better romantic comedies we’ve had in recent years with great performances from Jenny Slate, who is the shining star of the movie; Scott Eastwood, who is finally given a chance to prove himself as a comedic actor; and Charlie Day, lending his goofball chops to the table. Gina Rodriguez is also present.
I Want You Back gets a solid thumbs-up for me, and if they can come up with a decent screenplay and more screen time for Clark Backo, I would love to see Amazon Studios develop a sequel in a few years – I Still Want You Back?
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