What If *** (2013, Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan) – Movie Review

Daniel Radcliffe triumphantly takes on a Hugh Grant romcom role as posh Brit medical school dropout Wallace, burned out from failed relationships, who forms an instant bond with the slightly ditzy film animator Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a house party in Toronto.

It turns out she lives with her long-time boyfriend but leaves it far too late to tell Wally at her front door: ‘My boyfriend will be wondering what happened to me’ Ouch! They become best friends and soon Wally meets the boring boyfriend (Rafe Spall), who isn’t best pleased at this turn of affairs.

The question now is, can two people who want to be lovers stay just best friends? Director Michael Dowse’s movie then runs on When Harry Met Sally lines to its obvious conclusion.

The good news is that the movie is cute and funny, adroitly handled in both writing and directing departments. The casting and performances are ideal. With lots and lots of amusing, oddball gags and situations to perform, Radcliffe is very cute and perky, and Kazan nice and appealing.  Expertly droll and funny, Mackenzie Davis and Adam Driver are both excellent as heroine’s and hero’s best friends.  Spall can’t do much with his unsympathetic, ungrateful, clunky role of the bloke in between hero and heroine, but he tries hard.

Elan Mastai writes a truly engaging, offbeatly funny screenplay, but who to praise – the screenwriter or the writers of the original play the movie’s based on, T.J. Dawe and Michael Rinaldi. Their play title Toothpaste and Cigars wouldn’t really do for this movie, so you can see why they changed it, but it’s hard to get why they’d make it the generic, forgettable and inappropriate What If. And, while grumbling, what is it with Wallace and Chantry as the star character names?

If you like romcoms, there’s no doubt you’ll like this. Despite its inevitable air of deja-vu, it’s a good one.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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