{"id":1325834,"date":"2022-02-22T08:21:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1325834"},"modified":"2022-02-22T08:23:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T13:23:13","slug":"i-want-you-back-restores-sanity-romance-to-rom-coms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/i-want-you-back-restores-sanity-romance-to-rom-coms\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Want You Back\u201d Restores Sanity, Romance to Rom-Coms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fi-want-you-back-restores-sanity-romance-to-rom-coms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1325834&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/i-want-you-back-review-Charlie-Day-gina-Rodriguez-2.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><strong>Watching \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/marry-me-review\/\">Marry Me<\/a>\u201d would make most people pine for the rom-com\u2019s extinction.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s everything wrong with the genre, from the absurd premise to the oh, so predictable beats. And yet some devoured each and every cliche, craving a big-screen rom-com. You can\u2019t blame them. It\u2019s like throwing stale bread at a starving person. They\u2019ll eat it, of course, but deep down they\u2019d like something more substantial.<\/p>\n<p>Like \u201cI Want You Back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Amazon original offers hope for a genre on life support. It\u2019s smart despite its gimmicky premise, funny in small but discernible ways and unwilling to meet our low expectations.<\/p>\n<p>Jenny Slate stars as Emma, recently dumped by her hunky beau Noah (Scott Eastwood, more lively than usual). She bumps into a fellow dumpee, Peter (Charlie Day), and the two bond over their bruised hearts.\u00a0They do more than that, though. They devise a scheme to sabotage their old loves\u2019 new happiness.<\/p>\n<p>So far, so Kate Hudson.<\/p>\n<p>The differences between \u201cI Want You Back\u201d and previous rom-com stiffs are quickly clear. The film doesn\u2019t demonize the new flames. Noah is smitten by a pastry chef (Clark Backo) who is beautiful, kind and worthy of anyone\u2019s affection.<\/p>\n<p>Peter\u2019s ex,\u00a0Anne (Gina Rodriguez), falls for a theater-loving blowhard well played by Manny Jacinto. He\u2019s a bit sleazy but hardly a rom-com villain.<\/p>\n<p>The screenplay (\u201cThis Is Us\u201d alums Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger) takes it from there, treating the farcical premise with depth and maturity.\u00a0Sure, it involves some awkward moments, but the story rarely settles for cheap, insincere gags.<\/p>\n<p>Emma and Peter are in mourning, and the stakes are surprisingly high.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/marry-me-box-office-rom-com\/\"><strong>RELATED: Why \u2018Marry Me\u2019 Won\u2019t Bring Back Rom-Coms<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Genre devotees will predict the final twist mid-film, but the plot otherwise avoids the Hollywood blueprint. It\u2019s hard to appreciate how refreshing that is until you see it for yourself. Even better? Both Slate and Day deliver small, recognizable laughs without losing sight of their characters\u2019 pain.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez and Eastwood give helpful depth to their characters, never forcing us to hate them for making the \u201cwrong\u201d decisions.<\/p>\n<p>That simple tweak on a rom-com blueprint is exhilarating. Plus, there\u2019s no brassy best friend character to drag the story along. Emma and Peter have each other\u2019s back, and their chemistry clicks from their opening scene together.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/CZ-NtB1LTn6\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Day can be an off-putting presence, from his scratchy voice to those hyperbolic gestures. They even made a <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/its-always-sunny-in-philidelphia-charlie-memes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">popular meme or two around them<\/a>. He dials his comic tics back to reveal a nice guy powered by mostly modest ambitions. A subplot involving his work with a shady retirement company delivers some droll laughs (a hint of chicken!), but it\u2019s his connection with the elderly that\u2019s played straight and sincere.<\/p>\n<p>Again, refreshing.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s set-up demands some comic friction, from a potential menage a trios to the third act\u2019s inevitable fireworks. It\u2019s all handled with a delicacy missing in similar films. A scene near the end is downright shocking in its grace, just when you expect the opposite approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI Want You Back\u201d doesn\u2019t talk down to its audience. It assumes we\u2019re curious about the human condition and the nuances of modern love. We are, and it\u2019s about time someone noticed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HiT or Miss<\/strong>: \u201cI Want You Back\u201d is a wonderful return to form for a genre in dire need of love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watching \u201cMarry Me\u201d would make most people pine for the rom-com\u2019s extinction. It\u2019s everything wrong with the genre, from the absurd premise to the oh, so predictable beats. And yet &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1325834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1325834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}