Like a modern-day Misery (minus, you know, the hobbling), Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi! is a darkly comedic take on modern romance. However, there’s an actual relationship at its heart: our protagonist thinks she can convince her would-be boyfriend that they should be together by keeping him confined to a bed, rather than a parasocial one between a famous author and a fan. Oh, Hi! also has a similarly spare setting — and set-up — as the Stephen King novel and its adaptation. With a few exceptions, each story takes place largely in a single location: a remote house where neighbors can’t hear you scream, and Oh, Hi! briefly flirts with its thriller elements. In both cases, the women have far more affection for the men they’re imprisoning than the men do for them, even before they hold them hostage. And both Misery’s Annie and Oh, Hi!’s Iris just want these men to give them a happy ending, one for a beloved character and the other for herself. Is that too much to ask? (Apparently, yes.)
Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac’s (Logan Lerman) first trip together takes them from New York City to the Berkshires by car. It’s exactly every city dweller’s dream: roadside farm stands overflowing with ripe strawberries, quiet swimming holes with an illusion of privacy, and a Shaker-inspired country house with ‘gram-worthy luxuries. Not included among its amenities on the listing is a locked closet, filled with lingerie and sex toys.
Iris and Isaac make use of some restraints to mix things up a bit after four months together, but Isaac makes a classic blunder: While chained to the bed post-coitus, he tells Iris that he didn’t think they were exclusive. This was not the impression she got from his romantic gestures, emotional support, and cunnilingus. In a moment of anger, she refuses to unlock the restraints, thinking that if Isaac is forced to spend time with her, she can convince him to be her boyfriend. When Iris realizes the enormity of what she’s done, she calls her best friend, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), who brings along her boyfriend, Kenny (John Reynolds), to help figure out how to fix this very unfixable situation.
Oh, Hi! is somehow simultaneously generous toward its characters and entirely aware of how awful they are as people. The script by The Boy Downstairs’ Brooks (based on a story by her and Gordon) treats them and their behavior in this situation with grace while also poking fun at their foibles. They’re both kinda the worst in their own ways, with each representing the paradigm of the types of people you fear matching with in modern dating: the asshole man and the insane woman, neither of whom can be trusted to be who they initially appear in the early stages of a romance. Oh, Hi! doesn’t delve much deeper than that in its musings on the games of 21st-century relationships, but it is amusing to watch. (At least as someone currently sitting on the sidelines.)
Gordon, who was so good in Booksmart and Shiva Baby, remains a comedic wonder, up for anything with a perfect sense of timing for delivering batshit crazy lines with a wonderfully funny sense of seriousness. Lerman excels at playing incredulity and terror with enough softboy charm to attract multiple women simultaneously without committing to any of them. As the movie’s happy couple, Viswanathan and Reynolds are delightful. She’s a highlight in everything I’ve seen her in, and though I couldn’t initially place him, I still thought he was maybe the best thing in this very talented cast.
Oh, Hi! ponders contemporary courtship and what it does to those who have to endure its gauntlet with just the right mixture of playfulness and acerbity. It’s clear-eyed about the prospects of people finding love, while it still holds out hope for these two crazy kids, even if they aren’t meant to be together.
B
“Oh, Hi!” is in theaters Friday.
