I Want You Back Movie Review

Streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime starting Feb. 11

“I Want You Back” is decent (if predictable) Rom-Com type of movie. It has a bit of a preposterous set-up, but that makes the strangeness that follows a lot of fun.  A man gets dumped by his long-time girlfriend, and also a woman gets dumped by her beau on that same day. Then they meet and decide to take on the challenge of breaking up the other one’s new romance. They gleefully chase after Cupid to put a stake in his heart. Hey, what are friends for?

Emma (played by Jenny Slate) is truly, deeply, madly in love with her wonderful boyfriend. Noah (played by Scott Eastwood) is hunky lunk-head, who dumps Emma right off the bat. He is a personal trainer, more used to developing his muscles than his brains. He even thinks that a cute little puffball of a dog is called a pomegranate. Emma is shaken to her core. But she is not as shaken as much as Peter (played by Charlie Day). He also gets dumped by his girlfriend of six years, named Anne (played by Gina Rodriguez). Peter and Emma find that they work in the same high-rise.

Emma and Peter stumble upon each other in the stairwell, both sobbing and looking none too cute. But they find that getting dumped is something they have in common. So they meet for coffee and then for drinks, and sometimes for dinner. Emma hatches a plan that both of them can work at ruining the new relationships with both their Exes. Noah has totally fallen for a young woman named Ginny (played by Clark Backo), who runs her own pie shop. Emma seeks true romance with a fellow teacher at the school where she works. She is love with Logan (played by Manny Jacinto), who is the new Drama teacher.

Peter gets the notion to become Noah’s new best friend. He does that by signing up for physical training lessons at the gym where Noah works. That way he can weasel into his life and throw some doubt in there about Ginny. He can do that and maybe get in shape a little bit, too.  Emma goes to the school and says she is there to help Logan with putting on his student play. He has plans for just a normal musical, “The Little Shop of Horrors”. Nothing that is too traumatic for the kids.

As Emma and Peter spend more time together, they compare notes about how well they are doing. They both think that any day now, their ex-partner will see the light and come running back to them. Especially when the other ‘Pity Pal’ is doing everything to sow seeds of doubt, despair and relationship destruction. What could go wrong, right?

Well, plenty! Peter and Noah get a chance to leave Ginny back alone and they hit the clubs. A night of wanton drinking and womanizing — that should make Noah forget all about Ginny. But when these leave with a trio of girls — they find out that they are just that. These three young girls are underage wannabe party animals.

Emma, on the other hand, is getting to know Logan quite well. But there is always Anne hanging around. If she could just get something freaky to happen, then Anne would be disgusted at Logan and leave him. Emma decides that three is NOT a crowd, and she says she wants to be wild and crazy with the both of them together in the sack. After all – that is what all the famous Directors and Hollywood Stars would do, right?

Emma finds that this almost experience (never completed) turns the tide, and now Anne wants nothing to do with Logan. However, Peter sees that the wild drinking night with Noah has set his ‘best friend’ on a path marry Ginny. So things are getting more and more lop-sided. The original intention of getting both of the Exes to break up and ‘come home’ might not be working out.

So, now it all gets serious, and there is a proposal and an upcoming wedding. But if these characters all meet, and some details come out as to the motives of Peter and Emma – this might be the cause some serious distress. Will these characters realize what types of double-handed dealings were going on? Will Peter figure out that his best true love might not be Anne after all? And will Emma ever find the one of her dreams, the person who would give up an oxygen mask on an airplane to save another?

“I Want You Back” is a movie with a really good cast. The biggest problem is that they are given so little to do.  The plot goes in a couple of strange directions, and there are some humorous scenes. Beside the two main characters, the other roles are not a lot more than cardboard cutouts of real people. The main actors are perfect for those roles. You might say that Charlie is gonna try to “Make my ‘Day'”, and that Jenny just wants a clean ‘Slate’.

Streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime starting Feb. 11