2018, Jesse Peretza (LOTS of TV) -- Amazon
This one came to us by way of "the algorithm". It flowed along the Amazon "if you liked..." and, well, it did catch our attention. A British woman, Annie (Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You), is in an unhappy relationship with Duncan (Chris O'Dowd, Slumberland), and part of her unhappiness is his unsettling obsession with 90s American shoe gazer musician Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke, The Magnificent Seven). When Duncan gets a copy of the demo's for Crowe's seminal album Juliet, and Annie doesn't appreciate it like all the people on his message board do, they argue, annoying her to the level of writing her own review on the blog. Said post captures actual Crowe's attention and they begin a bit of a back-n-forth message chat, ending with him inviting himself over to meet Annie, on the pretense of seeing the birth of his grandchild from one of his many estranged children. Enter conflict.
This is an odd, atypical little British feel-good movie based on a Nick Hornby novel (something I didn't know until the credits rolled) which I loved because its Ethan Hawke pretty playing the aged up version of his character from Reality Bites, who is equal parts actual Ethan Hawke and one who is a bit of a pompous, self-centered ass, but desperately trying to rewrite that part of his code. Most of Hawke's other characters in his last decade have been characters but this one seems... more genuine?
Its a romcom that dispenses with almost all of the tropes, filling in the story with weird choices. For example, upon arriving in the UK, Tucker feels a bit off from the overnight trip, and then immediately drops from a massive heart attack. Like typical fiction, the impact is washed away, so they can focus on the awkwardness of Annie and Tucker's first IRL meeting being in the hospital ward, him surrounded by members of his family who showed up, most of whom despise him. Tucker hasn't been the best person most of his life, but he's acknowledged that and is working on it; its just taken him a long time to come to that point in his life and many of his bridges are burned. But to Annie, he's a blank slate pretty much, not at all the iconic image from her (now ex; they breakup before Tucker even hits the tarmac) boyfriend's little shrine in the basement. He also spins life with homespun folky wisdom that is so unlike anyone in her life. The only "comedy" comes from our observations of awkward annoying Duncan.
What I liked the most about the movie is that they don't (immediately) fall into each other's arms. They attempt to, both being more than a bit of an emotional mess at the time, but it doesn't work out. And they separate, both returning to their lives separated by the pond. But there is an epilogue...
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