WRITE WHEN YOU GET WORK: Unfinished Love, Unfinished Results
Jonny (Finn Wittrock) and Ruth (Rachel Keller) are first shown in a flurry of images, showing their younger impassioned selves. Their fledgling romance hits a new degree when they steal a pregnancy test, and we’re left wondering what the results were. Nothing makes you change quite like an unexpected child. Unless it doesn’t.
This beginning of Write When You Get Work, while inviting, levies the movie with a novel approach, but doesn’t keep it together.
Growing Up, But Not Letting Go
Nine years later, and they’re divided. Over the course of the film, we get glimmers of what happened, but mostly we just know that she’s the one who got away, and things ended precipitously.
Jonny can’t seem to keep a job, has a knack for thievery, and hasn’t seemed to change. Ruth is an interim admissions officer for a private school, motivated to improve her life, and for the most part, she seems to have matured while Jonny has regressed.
When coach (Jeffrey Butler) passes away, someone who was central to both of their lives (and who could have used more flashbacks), they’re reunited again at his funeral.
Jonny breaks into Ruth’s apartment and the two enter in a war of rapid verbiage that in theory could work (sometimes does), but here it feels inauthentic. Some phrases have no inflection and the two feel more like they’re reading lines.
There’s some fire to be had between our leads, with Wittrock pulling the bad boy, manipulative thief, off. Even Keller has her moments as she slowly lets slip her own guise, giving her own brand of deceit behind her doe eyes.
Within the movie there is a not-so-attractive portrait of class ranks, specifically when it comes to Jonny’s mark: Nan Noble (Emily Mortimer). Her husband (James Ransone) is a big hedge-fund success who’s jeopardized his position.
Nan’s children attend the same school that Ruth works at, and is one of those pushy, entitled women who often wants to control every aspect of how the school is run. Her character is a cliché, and while she isn’t completely odious, she’s easy to root against.
A Hurried Take
Jonny finds his opportunity, smooth talking Nan and luring her into a false sense of trust. Who better to hold onto her things in case they are taken away from them by the law? Mortimor plays the entitled mother aptly, but this character actress often comes through in even the smallest of roles.
Where the movie finds itself is in the briefest of moments, especially flashbacks of the estranged couple’s past. There’s a fervent love amid, and that should have been the traction (at least more probable) for the eventual “score”.
In a sense, I guess it is, as Jonny clearly seems amiss without her, and inserts himself into her life like a nonchalant pro. I might be able to buy into his intentions and the set piece that writer and director Stacy Cochran aims for, if Write When You Get Work was more cultivated.
Cochran nails the mood, chooses her leads well, but doesn’t bare down on the pacing. The frenetic energy makes the movie seem charged, but it’s a falsity. Her attempt at making this a crime-filled jaunt ends up dropping the reigns on the romance with a comic center, so by the credits there isn’t any of these choices fulfilled.
The score matches pace with the fast-moving story, but it tends to distract more than find itself as a necessary additive.
With the exception of Mortimer, a lot of the cast feels inconsequential, and at times amateur. There wasn’t enough development to warrant an attachment. Jonny and Ruth are both textured characters and their lost years and eventual reunion could have been better conceived.
The cinematography by Robert Elswit gives us an intimate showing of the characters, making the world feel lived-in with a very vibrant if not-gritty at times, New York.
Conclusion: Write When You Get Work
Write When You Get Work can be sweet, and there are semblances of earnest intentions, but overall it feels tame. A demure long- con sort of story, that baits you into submission, but ultimately leaves you holding the empty bag while our “heroes” ride off into the sunset.
What did you think? Were you impressed/disappointed? Let us know in the comments below!
Write When You Get Work was released in theaters in the US on November 23rd.
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