Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

One Movie Punch


Feb 17, 2018

Today’s movie is “Irreplaceable You”, a romantic comedy written by Bess Wohl and directed by Stephanie Laing. The film follows Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who is engaged to Sam (Michiel Huisman), after being in a relationship since they were eight years old. Shortly after they are engaged, Abby learns she has late-stage cancer, and decides she is going to do everything she can to help Sam move on after she dies, including finding a new relationship.

“Irreplaceable You” has a pretty amazing supporting cast, including Brian Tyree Henry as Sam’s friend Benji; Steve Coogan as Dominic, the lovable chemotherapy assistant; Christopher Walken as Myron, a fellow cancer patient; Kate McKinnon as Kate, who has her own theme song; and another great appearance by Jacki Weaver as Estelle, Myron’s wife.

The supporting cast helps Abby with her treatment path, but also seem to chew up a lot of screen time that takes away from developing Abby’s relationship to Sam. In fact, I feel Sam just fades into the rest of the supporting cast, which makes a film centered on a relationship really difficult, probably the biggest drawback of the film. If it wasn’t for the strength of the supporting cast, I feel like the movie could have fallen apart about two-thirds of the way through.

This film has some rough transitions between major scenes. Some scenes end abruptly; others don’t give enough before moving to a different topic. The music could be intrusive, sometimes undercutting the dialogue within a scene, or just too loud for the tone. I also felt the posthumous narrative technique was inconsistent... prevalent in the first third, then showing up again at the end.

Despite my criticisms, though, it was a good debut feature film for Bess Wohl and Stephanie Liang. I really enjoyed Mbatha-Raw’s performance and the supporting cast, and some scenes came out really great. And don’t worry, there are plenty of tearfully joyous moments for the die-hard romantic comedy fan, which makes this a fun, if imperfect film.

Rotten Tomatoes: 22%

Metacritic: 33

One Movie Punch: 5.6/10

“Irreplaceable You” is rated TV-MA and is currently streaming on Netflix.