Director: Aline Brosh McKenna
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Ashton Kutcher, Zoë Chao
Running Time: 111 minutes
Synopsis: Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher) had a one-night fling 20 years ago, and remained close friends and confidants ever since. She married someone else, divorced, and is now raising 13-year-old Jack in Los Angeles. Peter moved to New York, remained single, and became a successful corporate management consultant. When Debbie has to travel to New York to attend a course, she stays at Peter's apartment while he offers to care for Jack back in LA. They both discover secrets about each other.
What Works Well: Director Aline Brosh McKenna deploys dynamic split screens to compensate for the central couple being separated by a continent. Zoë Chao as millennial Minka (Peter's neighbour and ex-girlfriend) gets the best lines as she bonds with Debbie in a friendly barrage of inter-generational barbs. The Cars contribute the soundtrack music.
What Does Not Work As Well: Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher are both in their mid-forties and well past the age of partaking in the immature behaviour on display here. In wanting to be a cool male role model, Peter blatantly ignores Debbie's wishes (related to Jack's hockey ambitions), while Debbie stumbles upon Peter's manuscript and promptly rushes off to a book publisher without consulting with her supposed best friend. It's all listless and contrived, and lives down to the genre's grating attributes on the way to the inevitable conclusion.
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