Which Brings Me to You doesn’t have much going for its premise, but part of its appeal is the simplicity, relying on Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff’s chemistry to keep the story engaging from start to finish. In its writing and directing, the film fumbles most with jarring cuts and questionable choices that deter the story’s organic pacing, but the characterizations not only save it, they make it a romance worth watching.
One of the hardest things to convey in romance novels and films is the idea of “insta-love,” yet when there are honest conversations and moments of genuine vulnerability, they make the relationship feel entirely believable by the end of the film. Rye Lane nails this brilliantly, and in more ways than one, proving that if Which Brings Me to You stuck to more conversations and fewer flashbacks, perhaps it could’ve been just as excellent. Still, the film manages to surprise the audience with darker twists that touch on human complexities and the mistakes uncovered in most relationships.
The more Lucy Hale grows as an actress, the more promising she becomes at portraying nuanced characters with depth and believability. She was fantastic in The Hating Game, but Hale brings some of her best performances to Which Brings Me to You, and it’s ultimately a little sad, considering the script isn’t as sharp as it could’ve been. Yet, that interestingly makes Hale’s performance even better because she takes beats that could’ve blundered and adds a myriad of layers to them.
At the same time, Nat Wolff is also a surprising performer, going head-to-head with Hale in charm and vulnerability. The film thus utilizes both their performances to make the story something worth investing in, bringing us to why it essentially works even when it shouldn’t. It all comes around to the third act, tying the film together in a way that makes it easy to believe that maybe, finally, these two could embark on something that could work for both their messy edges coming together.
As significant and necessary as the flashbacks appear to be because the visual medium allows us to see everything unfurling, it’s hard not to wonder how the story could’ve unfolded if we had the opportunity to watch all their raw conversations in real time. You don’t always need to see something to understand the colossal weight of what the point in time meant. And while the film tries to make a point of the characters feeling like the other is right there with them, it just feels odd as a spectacle.
It might seem as though two characters sitting in a few different settings talking about their pasts could be dull or mundane, but there’s a surfeit of depth that comes from raw honesty. It’s how real people communicate and it could never come off as boring in the case of the real world. Still, while facets of the film don’t quite stick the landing, the performances are genuinely so impressive that the entire story is one that could potentially stay with viewers—romance fans, especially. The execution might not be astounding, but the meat of it, jam-packed with warm and tender beats, is a selling point.
Which Brings Me to You is now available on demand.