Tribeca Film Festival 2019 Review: PLUS ONE
I was late planning my Tribeca screenings this year and didn’t get a press pass. To make sure I could see the best films without doing a ton of research on short notice, I figured I’d get a ticket to the Narrative Audience Award. Unfortunately, my dumb brain forgot that Green Book was the latest example of an audience award winner at TIFF last year, and how well Bohemian Rhapsody did at the box office.
Not to say that Tribeca’s winner Plus One – a directorial debut from Jeff Chan and Andrew Rhymer – belongs in that problematic Green Book category or Bohemian Rhapsody category of mishaps we should try to forget. Plus One does suggest that an audience award is more a signal of comfortable mass appeal and minimal risk-taking than it is a beacon of innovative films that push the medium forward.
Plus One is a by-the-book romantic comedy. Alice (Maya Erskine) and Ben (Jack Quaid) are two friends who agree to attend a summer’s worth of weddings together as each other’s “plus one.” They both start with no romantic interest in the other, with Alice even helping Ben pick up girls at each wedding. As you could guess from the title alone, they develop feelings and start dating.
It’s a perfectly fine film to turn your brain off for 90-something minutes and enjoy. It just also happens to be a wildly predictable script with two characters that aren’t quite likeable or fleshed out. Plus One certainly hones in on a relatable feeling of being and feeling alone at weddings when you’re at a certain age, and has charming moments. It just never goes anywhere that makes it feel unique or particularly memorable.
With no risk taking, everything feels too predictable.
Beyond the fact that the title alone makes it all too predictable, each scene feels like you know exactly what’s coming. Ben being resistant to even cuddle with Alice feels like such a trope at this point. Instead, I wanted her to not want to cuddle with him. Scenes like this pop up constantly through the film. Even if what happens is visible from a mile away, how it happens is fun sometimes. For example, their first time having sex is in a graveyard and they’re woken up by the groundskeeper the next morning.
Unlikeable characters that don’t feel fleshed out
Both of the characters feel like archetypes without anything that really makes them unique. We rarely get to see or hear about them outside of their weddings and dating lives – they both lack depth. Ben is a handsome, single guy who never wants to settle down, while Alice was recently dumped by her long-term boyfriend and drinks and cries. That feels about the extent of the backstories.
It’s hard to feel sympathy for Alice when we don’t really know who she is. She is so terribly whiny early in the film – the absolute worst version of any drunk friend you’ve had who’s been dumped. We hear hints of who she is outside of dating, especially when the couple goes to visit Alice’s family. By then however, it feels too late.
Ben has an arrogance and aloof nature about him. Think any Joel McHale character, but without as much charm. We’re told he’s the VP of a startup. I’m not sure what the startup does, but I can only imagine it strips third world countries of their natural resources. He’d fit in well at a hedge fund or in the Hamptons for the summer.
Despite that, Quaid and Erskine give strong performances
It feels like they weren’t given enough to work with, but Quaid and Erskine both give strong central performances. I wouldn’t be surprised to see both of them break out into more high profile roles soon. Quaid feels comfortable and you can see the charm waiting to come out.
Erskine feels like she gives a bit more in her character and seems like she could be a standout comedic star one day. Their chemistry together is palpable and you want to believe in their love, even if it happens over the course of 8 weddings in a few months.
Dialogue waffles between charming and excessive
Some of the dialogue is sharp, witty and charming, while some of it feels like it’s trying too hard. There’s a quip where Alice tells a guy at a party “You look like you’d do well on Survivor.” She goes on to clarify he wouldn’t win because the winner is never too strong or too good looking. It’s a small, specific piece of dialogue that feels genuine and nuanced when compared to the larger script.
Other jokes fell flat or felt too easy. Repeatedly Alice or Ben makes up a term and then explains what it is. It got old pretty quickly, but the crowd laughed, so maybe I was just too hard to impress.
Plus One: Too safe to stand out
Plus One is a perfectly serviceable and adequate romantic comedy. It has moments that charm and performances that show great promise from the actors behind them. It could have been hurt by the Narrative Audience Award, but it just felt so forgettable and by the book. Characters who feel like caricatures rather than real people hurt the rooting interest in the story, and uneven dialogue does them no favors in feeling believable. The lesson Plus One taught me is not to trust the audience’s opinion. I should have learned that in 2018 though.
Did Plus One blow you away or were you not impressed? Let us know in the comments!
Plus One premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 28th, 2019. It will be released in the US on June 14th, 2019.
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