The film follows the story of Abigail (Christina Ricci), a divorced mother of two sharing custody of her children. Following a one night stand with Benjamin (Hamish Linklater), she ends up pregnant. Benjamin wants to do the right thing and be a part of this child’s life but has no experience with children and has no family to fall back on for advice or help. Abigail has the family support but doesn’t know whether she should keep the baby or if she even wants Benjamin in her life. Eventually they start seeing each other but the cracks are there from the start and Benjamin struggles with being a father figure to the children he hadn’t plan for.
Almost immediately we are in rough waters with this film. When Benjamin first meets Abigail his small talk includes cringy subjects inappropriate for a casual conversation with a stranger. That the two hit it off enough to spend the night together is head-scratching. That they would have unprotected sex is also head-scratching, although that can only be assumed as it is never mentioned. When Abigail tells Benjamin she is pregnant there is no “I thought you were on the pill,” or other such conversation so it must be assumed no protection was used. Benjamin is a self-absorbed and awkward character but he is also an unlikeable character. He says he wants to do right by Abigail but he’s lying about his life, keeping secrets, and is quick to skip out on an important event with Abigail and her daughter to have drinks with an old girlfriend, a woman he broke up with when he found out Abigail was pregnant. We don’t ever find out if things progressed beyond drinks.
Abigail fares a little bit better but she, too, is unlikeable. She has no issues with leaving her kids in the care of a woman who gets high while watching them. She also has problems disciplining her kids, allowing them to get rowdy enough that Benjamin finally loses his cool over it, then breaks up with him over it. She’s an under-written character whose only piece of background information we learn is that she once had an abortion but we don’t learn anything about why or when it happened. It’s barely more background than we get on Benjamin, which is nothing.
This is an underwritten film with surface level characters, hardly given enough screen time to tell the basic plot. With just barely seventy minutes to its runtime, there isn’t enough of anything to make these characters more than blank slates. When character moments do happen they are telegraphed and obvious such as when Benjamin first hears the developing baby’s heartbeat. Immediately we know that he’s going to panic and be unsure he can do this. Likewise, when the two first make their impromptu list of things to do before they break up we know that everything on that list will be done at some point before the ending. The film wants us to think the title is being clever but it is actually literal including the break-up. Tacking on a written prologue to smooth out the downer ending doesn’t save it even the slightest.
We need to like the characters in a romance story to be invested in their journey, even if that journey doesn’t end with them together. We need to be invested in their relationship in order to care about the outcome. Neither is the case here. Neither character is likable and only Abigail gets a moment where we feel anything for her. Most everything on screen is superficial at best and leaves a sour taste afterwards. The only characters we feel bad for are the two kids because they have to go through yet another break-up with a father figure they have come to like. It’s dour and depressing and may hit too close to home for many viewers.
There is really next to nothing worth investing the time in here. This film is slow, depressing and lands with a thud in the end. Neither character is changed by the events that unfold. Abigail is still a single mother only now she has three kids instead of two. Benjamin is still without any real commitments in his own life, remaining just a friend of the family. It’s an awkward ending and it’s abrupt, too. Everything wraps up in the last five minutes with a brief tagline printed on screen to explain away what ultimately happens to the two leads. It’s an unsatisfying way to end a film that has been unsatisfying throughout.
Release Date: February 21, 2020
Runtime: 74 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Christina Ricci and Hamish Linklater
Directed By: Galt Niederhoffer
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