Polly Draper

OH, HI!: romantic disappointment becomes absurdly unhinged

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Photo caption: Logan Lerman as Isaac and Molly Gordon as Iris in OH, HI!. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The dark romantic comedy Oh, Hi! begins with Iris (Molly Gordon of Booksmart, Theater Camp, The Bear) and Isaac (Logan Lerman of The Perks of Being a Wallflower) heading off to a countryside vacation rental for their first romantic getaway. All is lustful fun until they discover that each has a different perception of what their relationship is and where it is headed. What could have been a merely awkward or hurtful moment precipitates an extreme reaction, and escalates into an absurdly funny situation.

Oh, Hi! is the sophomore feature for writer-director Sophie Brooks. Commitment-averse guys and overthinking gals are common fodder for rom com humor, but Brooks is sharply observant about relationships tending to evolve at different speeds for the participants. Although she has created a broadly funny, over-the-top situation, much of the comedy is character-driven. Brooks has mined the first act and later flashbacks with clever hints about each character’s level of commitment to the relationship and their emotional stability. It’s a smart screenplay.

The success of Oh, Hi! depends on Molly Gordon’s fine performance as a woman whose increasingly unhinged and transgressive behavior is vulnerability-based. Logan Lerman is very good as a guy thinking his way through through a surreal experience with complete helplessness.

Polly Draper (Thirtysomething) is very funny as Iris’ mother, dispensing supportive yet unhelpful advice. Josh Reynolds is hilarious as an uxorious goof who has become entangled in a No Win state of affairs.

I screened Oh, Hi!, which premiered at this year’s Sundance, for the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. It releases in theaters this weekend.

DEMOLITION: a most entertaining nervous breakdown

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DEMOLITION
DEMOLITION

I was thoroughly entertained during Demolition, but I’m very ambivalent about just why that was.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a corporate striver who suddenly loses his wife in a car accident and then, well, he loses it. He has what we used to call a Nervous Breakdown (I don’t what the current euphemism is), and it’s a doozy. His behavior becomes strange and then bizarre – and we can’t keep our eyes off him.

And that’s what causes my ambivalence. In real life, nervous breakdowns aren’t very entertaining. The folks who suffer may pull the covers up over their heads, lapse into sobbing or catatonia or panic attacks – it’s just not fun to watch. But Gyllenhaal gets to do a goofy dance through crowded Manhattan streets, demolish stuff without committing vandalism, and it’s all great fun.

Demolition poses the question of whether this guy was a wackadoodle all along whose marital routine was keeping him functional –  or whether he really loved his wife and the sheer grief from her loss knocked him for a loop. We find out at the end, but it’s really not that important.

Our hero encounters a woman who’s a bit of an oddball (Naomi Watts) and her kid, a smart and creative boy who is heading into adolescence with a major identity issue.

Chris Cooper and Polly Draper are superb as Gyllenhaal’s grieving in-laws. Cooper is also Gyllenhaal’s boss and brilliantly modulates his responses as he tries to be appropriately sympathetic and supportive – until Gyllenhall’s behavior becomes just too bizarre and offensive. Draper has a smaller role, but gets to deliver a stunning monologue near the end. Judah Davis is exceptional as the kid.

If you look at Gyllenhaal’s body of work (Donnie Darko, The Good Girl, Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac, End of Watch, Prisoners, Nightcrawler), you first note that he’s in some very good movies, movies that are that good because of his performances. And you see that his characters range from the tightly wound to the maladjusted to the way-out-there cra-cra. If you need an actor from the post-Nicholas Cage generation to play “tortured”, Jake’s your guy.

Gyllenhaal is so charismatic that Demolition is entertaining (unless you overthink it, as I did).