FilmSnobReviews

Title: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between
MPAA Rating: TV-14
Director: Michael Lewen
Starring: Jordan Fisher, Talia Ryder, Ayo Edebiri
Runtime: 1 hr 22 mins

What It Is: During a party Claire (Ryder) meets Aidan (Fisher) the two of them hit it off almost immediately. She is a caring and fun young woman he is charming and thoughtful. The two make a great couple. But as all good romances must they end. Except this one has an end date from the start. Now Aidan is planning one last epic date that perhaps he hopes will change Claire’s mind. She might ALSO want the same thing and will never admit it.

What We Think: The acting in this isn’t the strong point. There isn’t really a hell of a lot of strong points now that I think about it. The central romance has enough chemistry but fails in places that other similar Netflix romances have succeeded and it fails in the same places as well. I did not find myself enjoying the events on screen. At no point did I laugh, smile, or emote at or with these characters. Instead, I was left with an unfulfilled void, that this film isn’t good enough to fill.

Our Grade: D+, I definitely don’t know what I thought I was getting here. Netflix just does this crap. They put out these little teen romcoms, often based on tween/teen novels, and they just fluff the damn thing up. Toss in some contemporary, en vogue, musicians and songs, and BAM! you’ve got it. It’s a formulaic, middle-of-the-road bullcrap. Jordan Fisher is typically pretty charismatic but here he’s left as some sort of vacuum for anything worthy of your attention. Quite the opposite of the Broadway star he actually is. You gotta blame the script and direction for that. All of those things combine to make a fairly forgettable RomCom that wants to make you cry but doesn’t have the gusto to actually do it.