“No idea's original. There's nothing new under the sun. It's never what you do, but how it's done…”
While I doubt renowned philosopher Nasir Jones was talking about movies when he so eloquently made that statement, there isn’t a more accurate depiction of the current state of romantic comedies. That description is especially true for the latest addition to the genre, The Lovebirds. Lovebirds reunites Kumail Nanjiani and Director Michael Showalter following their previous collaboration, the Oscar-nominated The Big Sick. For this go-around, they add Issa Rae to the team to tell the story about a couple who unwittingly gets tangled into a murder mystery on their way to what might be their final date. Sound familiar? Of course, it does. Is it worth playing the third wheel on this date night from hell? You’re better off minding your business on this one.
Rae and Nanjiani make a good but not great pairing. Romantically, they are very believable. They hit all the right notes as they sweetly flirt back and forth in the earlier stages of their relationship and the film. Even when the film progresses beyond that point, this couple still oozes an undeniable charm that keeps Lovebirds interesting. This type of performance is business as usual for Nanjiani, but Rae broke new ground in her TV to film conversion. She is far more relaxed and in tune with her on-screen partner than in her previous romantic lead role in The Photograph and less mechanical than her turn in Little.
However, much like the duo’s relationship in the film, all is not well. As good as Rae and Nanjiani are in the romance department, they are equally as dull comedically. Their chemistry dissolves when the couple is doing something other than love each other. The “comedic” banter they share throughout the film elicits questions as to how Rae and Nanjiani’s connection got lost instead of laughs. It’s reminiscent of the disastrous cover of Prince's “The Beautiful Ones” by Mariah Carey featuring Dru Hill in that you have two more than capable talents and both miss their marks entirely. To be fair, this problem is not entirely their fault, but Rae and Nanjiani continue their cold streak with miss after miss when they improv.
The problem with Lovebirds lies in its foundation. With a combined four feature film writing credits between them, Aaron Abrams and Brendan Gall penned a script that shows their inexperience as it suffers from redundancy and no humor. The redundancy is blatant as the story is 2010’s Date Night – the story of a couple who stumbles upon a crime during their night on the town. The only real difference is Abrams and Gall included a completely unnecessary The Amazing Race motif. The lack of humor is most evident in the fact that most of the film’s jokes rely on its characters making almost every conversation into a shouting contest. Lovers quarrels are an excellent source for humor, but not for most of an 87-minute movie. The failed cultural reference deadpans Abrams and Gall sloppily added about Permit Pattys, police brutality, and rape culture without any real context makes it worse. Showalter does his best to cover these flaws with plenty of Rae and Nanjiani improv, but that just adds fuel to the dumpster fire because the source material is so bad.
The expectations for Lovebirds were never high, but the final product is still very disappointing considering the talent involved. Rae and Nanjiani have chemistry and nail the romantic aspect of their partnership, but miss completely comedy-wise mostly due to an awful script. Big Sick and Insecure fans are better off with a repeat viewing of those works instead of giving these lovebirds an hour and half of their time. If you haven’t seen Big Sick or Insecure, now is as good a time as any to see them and avoid watching Lovebirds.
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