Someone Great | Film Review

Hey Guys x

This is a new Netflix original movie, and to be honest, it wasn't really on my radar at all until I saw who was in it. A lot of the time, Netflix releases bland-looking movies that you've never heard of, promotes them for a week, and then you never hear about them again. I immediately thought that this would be one of them, but when I saw the cast and actually read the plot, I was really intrigued by the premise.

Jenny (Gina Rodriguez) has just been dumped by her boyfriend Nate (Lakeith Stanfield), days before she's supposed to move. Desperate to get out of her miserable state, she and her two best friends, Erin (DeWanda Wise) and Blair (Brittany Snow), decide to have one last crazy night out together before everything changes. But will one night be able to make them forget all of their relationship troubles?

I actually enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would at the beginning.

The first note I wrote about the film is that it starts off as 'the rom-com that studios think women want to watch', and for the most part, this is done well. We have diversity, three great female characters, and a background that we are interested in. However, some things were too on-the-nose for me. For example, I don't need a main character to be drinking out of a 'feminist' cup or sitting on a 'feminist' cushion for me to learn anything about their characters. For me it seemed too much and could have been done more subtly.

However, as I just mentioned, the three main characters have distinct personalities that exist independently of each other. They are likeable and really well-written.
Unfortunately, these three are the only three-dimensional characters in the film. None of the supporting characters are really fleshed out, and we don't know that much about them . On the one hand, this focuses all of our attention on to these three protagonists, which is great. But at the same time, I would have liked to get to know other characters more.

My absolute favourite parts of the film were the flashbacks to the good and bad points in Jenny and Nate's relationship. If nothing else, it was a really interesting, well-written example of how an extremely happy relationship slowly deteriorates.

This film is marketed as a movie about female friendships, and while the female characters are great in and of themselves, they don't seem to have a particularly strong friendship. It's clear that they have history (two of them even live together), but their current friendship isn't shown that well on screen. In a way, it kind of feels like they had been friends for a really long time and this was the beginning of them growing apart.
Plus, there were moments in the film where the women were supposed to argue, and pull each other up on their flaws. But all of these arguments about real things (important things that needed to be addressed) quickly became superficial, and they made up without actually solving the problem that caused the argument in the first place.

Something else that struck me about the film was that, it felt like the main couple have been broken up for longer than they actually had. For me, the film should have maybe taken place a few weeks after the break-up. Then we could truly see the extent of Jenny's sadness (because she wasn't getting over him) and her friends (and the audience) would truly understand how hurt she was, and how much she needed that big night out. The movie taking place the day after the break-up felt a bit soon - there's not enough time for the character to realistically try to get over the person that she was with for 9 years.

Near the end of the movie, Jenny (Gina Rodriguez's character) says a piece and writes down a speech (of sorts) about her relationship. This speech is so well-written and incredibly beautiful. It truly captures the magic that a relationship can have, even if it ends badly.

It is also the first movie I've seen where a major plot point is the main character moving away, but none of the supporting characters are trying to make her stay, and I thought that was really refreshing. The film could have so easily turned into a film about the two girls trying to give her the best night of her life so that she'll choose not to leave them, but it wasn't, and I loved that.

Overall, this is a fun movie with an AMAZING soundtrack. If you're in the mood for something light with really fun characters, give this a shot!

6.5/10

Lou