I love dark comedies and big swings. They’re among my favorite movie flavors. With such titles as Dr. Strangelove, Heathers, War Of The Roses, and Fargo offering us peak form, I found myself studying their mastery of tone and ability to somehow make us care about a gallery of unsavory characters. It’s an exceedingly fine line to walk. Kathleen Turner’s Beverly Sutphin in Serial Mom, for example, may kill off her entire neighborhood, but we relate to her because her victims refuse to recycle their garbage or rewind their VHS rentals.
In their new comedy/horror hybrid, I Don’t Understand You, filmmakers David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano aim high, but for me, lose the thread by featuring two leads impossible to root for or even comprehend. A married couple who partially based the story on their real-life experiences, Craig and Crano start with a great concept. Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells), a couple on the verge of adopting a baby from a surrogate named Candace (Amanda Seyfried), head off to Italy for a “babymoon” before their lives change forever. After some bad weather, shoddy directions, and missed communications due to language barriers, things get scary and eventually murderous for our expectant couple.
When we first meet Dom and Cole, this affluent LA couple nervously awaits a Zoom interview with Candace. You can tell they question their own viability as parents, but the strength of their bond helps them overcome such doubts. Rannells and Kroll have a wonderful, easy chemistry, both tamping down their usually manic characterizations in favor of something grounded and real. After winning Candace over, they head off to Italy to cherish the time before their family expands.
So far, so good, right? Sure, but for me, the cracks began to show in the subtlest of ways the minute they board that jet. When they enter the Business Class section, I immediately clocked that they had opted for an older plane, the kind without lie-flat seats. I know I’m nitpicking, but stick with me for a sec, OK? Two bougie LA gay guys would NEVER fly for almost 12 hours from LA to Rome without being able to go fully horizontal! While not a dealbreaker, this tiny detail came close to taking me out of the movie. Now, in reality, I’m sure this film had a limited budget and the fuselage they used was perhaps their most affordable option. If that was the case, however, I would have established them as less financially stable or at least have them make mention of this aging plane. Already, my antennae were up and poised for credibility issues. No matter the genre, the characters still need to feel believable, and I felt torn about this throughout. One minute our main couple come across as warm, even heartfelt and the next they’re monstrous sociopaths.
If the premise for this film is that gay people are horrible, then mission accomplished. Your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for people making bad decisions or if you require such things as logic, reason, and consequences. Some will love that this movie goes to some very dark places, but I just didn’t see the point of it all. It feels like Craig and Crano had a series of nightmares in Italy but didn’t trust their story to be interesting enough and embellished it with a lot of knives and blood. Had they stuck closer to the actual events, this could have been a gay version of the great Neil Simon/Arthur Hiller film, The Out Of Towners (the original from 1970 with Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis, not the horrible 1999 remake with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn). As it stands, we have a structurally lopsided film in which the action takes the better part of an hour to get going. When it finally does, we’re fed frustrating language barrier scenarios which could have easily been resolved with a Google translator or pantomiming or heck, I don’t know, how about drawing pictures?
Still, the film serves as a good showcase for Rannells’ and Kroll’s range. I also thought Morgan Spector served up a super sexy performance as the son of an innkeeper with a possibly dangerous streak. Amanda Seyfried literally phones in hers, but does deliver some sweet vulnerability. So it’s not a total loss, and when things escalate, you may like the wild ride.
Throughout, Dom and Cole wonder if they’ll make good parents. Some may think so because they fiercely have each others’ backs, but, personally, I wanted to place an emergency call to Child Protective Services. Because the filmmakers ultimately opt for sincerity, we’re left without a truly satirical point of view. It left me yelling at the screen, “I don’t understand you!”
By Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic
I Don’t Understand You opens in theaters Friday, June 6th.
For more film reviews by Glenn Gaylord subscribe to his new YouTube channel here ——> GLENN HATES EVERYTHING
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