Once again, a movie was burning a hole in my Netflix list and having nothing else better to do, I decided to watch When We First Met to get it out of the way. I was expecting a half-decent romantic comedy packed full of all the stereotypes and typical plot devices that the genre uses, and that is exactly what I received. This film is nothing more than a bland romantic comedy that does not surpass any expectations. While it is still entertaining at the most, there is nothing provided to make it stand out among the rest.
This movie suffered from practically everything that one might expect a romantic comedy could suffer from: a predictable and overused plot, generic but attractive characters, and an unsatisfied feeling left in my stomach afterwards. One of my biggest developing pet peeves is the Groundhog Day-style that many films are using. The plot device of trying to get something right after multiple tries is becoming very unoriginal and unless something spectacular is done, it makes the plot unbelievably predictable. A movie like Happy Death Day, for instance, took that device and made it interesting, but this film took it for granted. Another thing that this genre always gets wrong is making the lead female character seem like a "reward" for the "hard work" of the male character (traditionally). This device was only enhanced by the premise of this movie, as the main character Noah (played by Adam Devine) kept going back over the same few days in order to try different ways to win over Avery's (played by Alexandra Daddario) heart. Almost zero development was given to the character of Avery and only focused on Noah's journey. This is what many rom-coms get wrong. Equal development and storytelling should be given to both of the characters in the film that are predicted to fall in love. This was not done in this movie whatsoever and was even worse when it came to who Noah actually fell in love with. The twist of the film was that Noah was supposed to be falling in love with Avery's best friend Carrie, played by Shelley Hennig. However, this twist occurred in the last fifteen minutes of the film and that did not bode well for the characters. Once again, the writing treated Carrie like a "prize" and had her fall for him upon his first try without any decent background. Carrie had barely even met Noah before his last attempt, for crying out loud, and then she instantly falls in love with him.
The other aspect of this film that was wildly mediocre was the characters. Noah was your typical dry-humored white male whose only goal was getting with Avery. No matter what happened in the film during his various attempts, he did not change at all. I was expecting him to develop and take different parts of his romantic attempts seriously, but that was not the case. In fact, all of the characters in this movie were very forgettable. None of the performances were great; not bad, but not outstanding. Another problem with this movie was the chemistry and representation. Even though Noah was supposed to be falling in love with Avery, Adam Devine and Alexandra Daddario do not have any chemistry together, even just with their friendship. The characters did not work well and it seemed that Noah was just an overgrown 12-year old who knew nothing about interacting with other people. The representation in this film was not great either, as the only person of color was Noah's best friend Max, played by Andrew Bachelor. And of course, he was given the role of "dumb best friend" to provide a bit of relief from the already dull plot. The final thing about this film that bugged me was the writing regarding Noah and Avery's first night together. Noah apparently knew that Avery liked jazz music, which was a weird, niche interest. This could have worked for these two, but that part was never explored.
When We First Met is a very uninteresting romantic comedy that just recycles an old plot device. The characters are boring, the story is boring, and every piece of the plot is predictable. This film is still an entertaining movie, but I would only recommend watching it in the background while you are doing laundry or washing dishes.
My Rating: ★★
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