Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson Charm in the Time Loop Rom-Com Meet Cute: Review
The post Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson Charm in the Time Loop Rom-Com Meet Cute: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: It’s a tale as old as time: Gary (Pete Davidson) and Sheila (Kaley Cuoco) meet at a bar, and it’s basically love at first sight. She notices him because he’s the only one in the bar not watching the Big Game. He notices her because she’s funny, witty, unexpected, and a little kooky; their droll senses of humor bounce off each other like electricity. As their night goes from bar to restaurant to slow walks and talks along the riverside, it seems like their moment-one spark is too good to be true.
Well, that might be because it is: It doesn’t take long for Sheila to fess up to the fact that their spontaneous meeting wasn’t so spontaneous: She’s lived this night dozens of times before, thanks to a magical tanning machine in a nearby nail salon that zaps you back 24 hours in time.
Meeting Gary at a vulnerable time in her life and feeling that spark, she’s decided to use the magical bed to get this first date with Gary perfect, no matter how many trips it takes. But the more she tries, the further she gets from the perfect man she wants — until she decides to change the past to mold him to perfection.
Meet Cute (Peacock)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? In some ways, the title of Peacock’s Meet Cute is a bit of a misnomer. Sure, the first act of director Alex Lehmann’s latest offers a novel spin on the titular rom-com trope: What if someone tried to recapture the spontaneity of a meet-cute over and over again, just to get it right?
But as Noga Pnueli’s screenplay (which made it to the 2018 Black List) unfurls along its easy, charming path, it makes an interesting pivot to that other well-worn romantic sentiment: I can fix him. And that’s where the film gets truly interesting, even as it overburdens its stakes along the way.
Lehmann, who’s no stranger to low-budget, existential two-handers like this (see: the deceptively excellent mumblecore bromance Paddleton from a few years back), smartly paces the first version of Gary and Sheila’s fateful night. For a good long time, we’ve only got Cuoco and Davidson to lean on, and they’ve got a delightfully oddball chemistry: Cuoco the fast-talking, frantic romantic, Davidson his typical combination of hunched anxiety and laidback wit.
Lehmann lets their trains of thought stretch out over long, conversational takes, John Matysiak’s camera capturing a street-level New York filled with trash on the streets, Indian restaurants awash in multicolored Christmas lights on the ceiling, and food trucks serving ridiculously artisanal ice creams.
Meet Cute (Peacock)
It’s Okay For Things to Be Messy: Lest this SNL sketch-deep concept wears thin, the script refreshingly changes gears after the first act, and Meet Cute‘s quirky premise suddenly takes on more existential stakes. Sheila’s not just content to relive her lovely night with Gary — she has to make it perfect. To make him perfect. It’s a selfish need (accentuated by the extremes to which she has to go to cover her bases, a repeated gasp-worthy gag). But it’s one that Cuoco makes work with a devilishly desperate turn not unlike her work in The Flight Attendant.
But even her frozen-in-time idyll, facilitated by a brilliantly deadpan Deborah S. Craig as the nail technician who holds the secrets of their time machine (don’t ask), goes the way most relationships go: complacency, petrification, resentment. That this track is only one-way (for Gary, this is ever only happening for the first time) makes it all the more frustrating for her.
That’s where Meet Cute takes even more Kaufmanian directions, as Sheila starts hopping further back in time to make some tweaks to Gary’s formative experiences (complete with fake mustaches and constructed backstories). It’s a compulsion for her; as much as she’s trying to fix him, she’s doing it so he can fix her and give her a reason to live. As third-act complications put the time-traveling ball in Gary’s court (the one time Davidson’s Gary truly gets to grow), the film’s intimate scale widens, and suddenly we’re talking about the innate durability of human nature. Sometimes, our shit sticks to us, and Lehmann’s film explores that idea with an open heart.
The Verdict: Behind Meet Cute‘s smart performances and effortless humor lies a bittersweet tale about the agony of choosing to live another day, of making decisions not knowing whether they’re the right ones. Sometimes, it’s not worth it to keep trying to shove the square peg in the round hole; you’ve got to make do with the pieces you’ve got, and that’s okay. “If you erase the pain, you erase the person,” June sagely advises Sheila at one point. Our pasts shape us, but we’re not defined by our traumas; sometimes, our traumas can shape us for the better.
Where’s It Playing? Meet Cute wins you over again (and again, and again) on Peacock.
Trailer:
Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson Charm in the Time Loop Rom-Com Meet Cute: Review
Clint Worthington
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