Your Place or Mine Review: Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher Go to Extremes in Sweet, If Familiar, Rom-Com

There’s nothing original or groundbreaking about the new Netflix rom-com with you or with me but it is just as convenient fame in a film that doesn’t attempt to rewrite the rules of engagement in a well-worn genre, making this indulgent treat the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. In fact, it’s the streamers that fill the bill for couples looking for a little love during their cinema visits, and this film is a stylish feature debut for veteran screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada, 27 dresses) is cute enough to stay at home on the couch on Cupid’s big day, a great alternative way to get in the mood.

Actually, the premise that the two main characters change places and cities for a week is not new at all. For example, Nancy Meyers performed sensationally in 2006 The holiday, but in this one it was two strangers, played by Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz, who responded to ads and agreed to swap houses and places for a Christmas season when they would discover a new life through each other’s lives. Here we have 40-something BFFs Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) plying their trade in very different circumstances.

Twenty years earlier, the two had a one-night stand that Peter just didn’t want to repeat because he claimed he was commitment-phobic and not the right man for Debbie. Instead, they decided to become best friends, even at a distance, when his fear of earthquakes prompted him to flee Los Angeles to New York City, where he could pursue his writing ambitions – although he clearly has money, as in his dream apartment with a view of the appearance of the Big Apple. However, thanks to their phones and laptops, Peter and Debbie are inseparable and constantly share the ups and downs of their lives, contradictory as they are.

Debbie is divorced and raising son Jack (Wesley Kimmel), of whom she is clearly overprotective. As an accountant at a local school, she jumps at the opportunity to broaden her horizons and go to NYC to take some courses that will help her get ahead in her job – it’s also a good opportunity to see her old friend Peter. However, when her babysitter cancels the night before her trip, she is forced to cancel until Peter suggests he can be on a plane to LA to take care of Jack while she gets to New York. So they switch houses for a week and find that what they thought they knew about their best friend turns out to be very different when they learn about each other’s real lifestyles and homes.

Peter turns out to be just the male influence Jack needs, opening up a whole new world for the boy who was bullied at school and had few friends. From looking Foreigner together (mother would never (allowing) to take Jack to hockey, Peter’s life is very different than it ever was in New York. Ditto across the coast for Debbie, who befriends an ex of Peter’s named Minka (Zoe Chao), discovers a book manuscript Peter never told her he wrote, and develops a business and sexual relationship with the handsome publisher Theo (Jesse Williams). to whom she threw Peter’s book (known to the author). Something goes wrong on both ends of this exchange, as is predictable, but it wouldn’t be a spoiler alert to say that it all ends in a satisfying rom-com way – but thankfully one grounded in reality. It’s also new to the genre these days, especially with Netflix, which has specialized in this rom-com that focuses on two middle-aged stars.

You can thank stalwarts and veterans of the genre, Witherspoon and Kutcher, for doing it so well. These kinds of movies can flat out like a pancake without the right chemistry, and even when they are off screen together Everything works for most of the movie, especially as McKenna effectively uses the old-fashioned split-screen device for her two-kissed FaceTime and phone conversations, even a sequence in dueling baths that directly pays homage (or steals?) to Rock and Doris inside. pillow talk

As the time-honored rom-com roles of best friends, both the stylishly dressed Chao and Tig Notaro, who plays a mutual friend of Debbie and Peter, tick the box perfectly, with the latter delivering her welcome signature wry humor. Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin Kimmel is refreshingly touching and believable as Jack. Of the rest of the cast, only Zen, Steve Zahn’s more one-dimensional neighbor obsessed with tending to Debbie’s overgrown garden, comes across as an over-the-top human being, less a relatable human being and more a ridiculousness.

Producers are Jason Bateman, Michael Costigan, Witherspoon, Lauren Neustadter and McKenna. Netflix starts streaming With you or with me on Friday.