Oh, Hi! (United States, 2025)
July 25, 2025
Oh, Hi! can best be described as an interesting failure. The underlying idea seems promising: start out the movie as a standard-order rom-com then shift into Misery territory. Make the whole thing a dark, twisted comedy that offers commentary on the difficulties surrounding commitment in today's dating scene. There's enough in the film to assemble an intriguing two-minute trailer. Unfortunately, the movie has an additional 92 minutes to fill and that's not something it's able to do with much success. The problems with Oh, Hi! relate not to its conception but its execution.
Missteps are evident from the beginning. What's one of the most enjoyable moments in any rom-com? The meet-cute. However, when Oh, Hi! starts, Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) have already been dating for four months making the relationship new enough to retain a patina of freshness but old enough that some of the things they learn about one another during the talky first half-hour should have already been covered. There's minimal chemistry between the pair and the sex scenes, despite being more explicit than about 90% of what's out there today, lack heat. In short, the movie's establishing act fails to establish. The acting by the two principals is fine but they aren't believable as lovers.
The shift occurs when it suddenly comes to light – four months in! – that Iris and Isaac have different relationship goals. She wants romance, love, and a chance for a future. He wants a fuck-buddy. How this never came up is as much of a mystery as where he got the scallops he cooks for dinner. Unfortunately, Isaac (who isn't the brightest bulb in the pack) expresses his commitment-aversion priorities when he happens to be handcuffed (as part of a little kink thrown in to spice up the sex). Iris decides the best approach is to keep him shackled for 12 hours while she attempts to convince him that she's the perfect girl for him. Isaac decides to play along in the hope that when time's up, his date-from-hell will end.
As long as this 12 hours is for Isaac, it's seemingly just
as long for the viewer. This is a clear case of a filmmaker stretching out material
better suited to a short to feature length. Although there is an amusement factor
in the situation, especially with the arrival of Iris' best friend, Max (Geraldine
Viswanathan), and her beau, Kenny (John Reynolds), instances of laugh-provoking
material are hit-and-miss, with more of the latter than the former. And, without
going into details, the ending is flat and devoid of humor or insight. It's as
if writer/director Sophie Brooks got to this point and didn't really know how
to wrap things up.
Anyone familiar with Misery will recognize the connective tissue, but Brooks doesn't want the movie to stray close to horror territory and therein lies part of the problem. The film's squeamishness, combined with its need to maintain Iris' likability, gives Oh, Hi! a neutered, off-putting vibe. It doesn't take chances. Then there's the ongoing verbal diarrhea in which the characters talk a lot but say basically nothing. Sometimes, chatter like this can be endearing and character-building, but in this case, it just feels like filler.
The movie perks up once Max and Kenny arrive, but by then
the movie is about 2/3 of the way to the finish line. There's a genuinely
amusing scene in which the two women mull over the possibility of killing Isaac
as a way out of the predicament (they're not serious…maybe). And the chemistry
so absent between Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman is present in spades between Gordon
and Geraldine Viswanathan. (Raising the question of how much better the movie
might have been if they had been the couple.)
My chief frustration with Oh, Hi! is that I like the performances and can see workable narrative trajectories, but Brooks fails to traverse any of those detours with her unfocused, underwhelming screenplay. Good ideas and clever conceits only work if they come together in the finished product and that's not the case here. I was more than ready to say "bye" before the time finally came.
Oh, Hi! (United States, 2025)
Cast: Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds
Screenplay: Sophie Brooks
Cinematography: Conor Murphy
Music: Steven Price
U.S. Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
U.S. Release Date: 2025-07-25
MPAA Rating: "R" (Sexual Content, Nudity, Profanity)
Genre: Comedy
Subtitles: none
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
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