Refreshing take on the Rom-Com genre

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2019)

If you're going to do an indie rom-com, you're going to have to do something interesting with the formula. We are warned in the first couple of minutes by the narrator, "This is a story of boy meets girl but be warned...this is not a love story". It also uses the device of telling the story non-chronologically. So we're already shifting the conventional ground and all the better for it.
Zoe Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt have been friends in real life for nearly a decade and this makes for a very natural relationship on screen especially as the characters spend much of the movie "as friends". It's not especially funny though it does contain some sharp wit and spends more time in the Rom world, but there's plenty of story here too albeit as it's not chronological it's harder to dissect.
There are moments of whimsy by the director such as a short dance sequence, use of a split-screen and another where the scene dissolves into and architects sketch but because it's not taking itself too seriously it doesn't disrupt.
It plays with our perceptions of reality of the relationship we are witnessing so conveniently greys things up and again prevents a tear down, which most rom-com plots won't survive.
The supporting cast add colour especially Clarke Gregg as Gordon-Levitt's boss and Chloe Grace Moretz as his younger sister and wise beyond her (everyones) years Agony Aunt.
The soundtrack requires mentioning as it's very avant garde and again of an indie persuasion.
In a genre I garner scant enjoyment out of, I have to consider this a big success. It's successfully unconventional and engaging while still fulfilling the role of a Rom-Com. Well done. EIGHT