Director: Michael Dowse
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Megan Park and Adam Driver
Certificate: 15
WHAT IF is another telling of the subject of “Can men and women be truly friends without sleeping together?” Yes, this is possible but films don’t seem to agree on this matter. According to la-la land AKA Hollywood, men and women are pretty much doomed to courtship as soon as they even glance at each other, like a pair of nightmarish ducklings imprinting. At least it’s not as bad as Jacob from TWILIGHT creepily imprinting on a child at least, right?
The main problem with the film can be summed up with one word; predictable. From the beginning of the film where Wallace is messing around with the magnets on the fridge and spells out “Love is stupid”, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking this could be a fun an unexpected ride. Sadly it isn’t. What he should have spelled out on the fridge was “Like HARRY MET SALLY but less entertaining…and a tad bland”. There are hundreds of romantic comedies out there, and WHAT IF doesn’t really stand out for originality that’s anything like (500) DAYS OF SUMMER which was brutal and clever.
The casting was certainly spot on especially Radcliffe playing Wallace as he really portrays the down, dumped and “the other guy” to perfection. However, I was slightly confused with the Canadian accent he was trying to pull off. He kept slipping in and out of it which could have been done purposefully for the character but it was rather distracting. There’s no doubt that Radcliffe and Kazan spark and have good chemistry on-screen but it often feels like there could have been a lot more added to their story.
WHAT IF fails to add anything to the romantic comedy genre, instead it really does back up its point that “love is stupid” and that this style of movie will never, ever go away.
[usr=2] WHAT IF is released on DVD and Blu-ray 9th February.
