Your Place or Mine is the feature directorial debut of longtime screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, who penned classic iconic titles like The Devil Wears Prada and 27 Dresses. Despite those successes, this latest venture plays best as a lazy Saturday afternoon watch.
The film follows Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher), good friends who hooked up once in 2003. Cut to 20 years later — yes, 20 years — and they are the kind of besties that talk every day and know everything about each other’s lives, even though Debbie lives in LA with her 13-year-old son Jack (Wesley Kimmel) and Peter lives in New York.
Debbie’s on the move though and settles into Peter’s place in Manhattan for the duration of a work course, while Peter agrees to live in her LA home to take care of Jack. They learn a lot about each other’s lives through this exchange and, given the film’s February release date, you can already guess the ending.
When it comes to romcoms, the chemistry between the two lead actors and a good, encompassing story is all it takes for viewers to fall for the central couple and invest in their relationship. Unfortunately, the story here is weak and quite predictable, and there is next to no chemistry between Witherspoon and Kutcher. In fact, their platonic friendship was more believable and even more entertaining.
Witherspoon and Kutcher are both actors who have individually starred in successful genre tentpoles, but for some reason this one just didn’t fit the bill. The film isn’t even a testament to their talent or charm as actors; the material they’re working with was simply too weak for them to salvage.
That being said, the film did do justice to two of its supporting actors. Watching Zoë Chao kill it with one-liners like “I only listen to celeb bios” is a highlight and makes us wish her character had a whole movie to herself. Even Tig Notaro was a highlight as Peter’s confidante, bringing her signature deadpan comedic timing to the table.
If anything, this film is a one-time watch by yourself or your crew on a lazy weekend at home.
Your Place or Mine is available to stream on Netflix now.
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