Delayed Reaction: The Lovebirds

Premise: A couple on the rocks go on the run after unintentionally getting tied to a murder.

I've been on something like a hiatus from this blog the last couple months. I haven't entirely stopped writing things. I've just slowed down a lot. If you haven't heard, this COVID-19 thing has really shaken things up. My pipeline of new movies has dried up. My weekly streak of seeing movies in a movie theater that went back to 2012 was forced to end, meaning I haven't had a proper Movie Reaction in a while. In addition to that, my response to all this has been to go back to a lot of familiar movies rather than branch out to new ones. I've picked my own Blu-ray collection pretty clean and even binged the entire MCU in less than a week. Like most people, my "normal" has been thrown out of whack.

The same goes for The Lovebirds. This isn't the fate it expected. I was looking forward to seeing this movie in theaters. A comedy starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani? Sign me up! Then COVID-19 happened and this got shoved to a Netflix release. That's less exciting than a theatrical release, but I'll take anything at this point. Besides, this isn't the kind of movie that would lose that much from theater to streaming.

The Lovebirds ended up being exactly what it promised to be. Nanjiani and Rae are two of the most likable performers I can think of. I've barely even seen Issa Rae in anything, and I'm still a big fan. Nanjiani I'm a lot more familiar with from Silicon Valley, The Big Sick, and countless other appearances. He reteams with his The Big Sick director, Michael Showalter, for this. The movie leverages Nanjiani and Rae's innate likability and talent a lot. I can't say any of the jokes are inspired, but those two know how to sell them. They play off each other well too. I had my concerns going in that it would be a bickering couple movie. It's really not though. It's easy to see how they've been in a relationship for so long. They are a team throughout the movie, even though they are figuring out if the romantic part of their relationship is going to work out. The movie is entirely worth seeing on the strength of their performances.

That's good, because the plot is pretty forgettable. On the way to a party, Leilani (Rae) and Jibran (Nanjiani) are in the process of breaking up when a man commandeers their car, saying he's a cop. The man proceeds to kill a man and flee the scene before bystanders find Leilani and Jibran standing over the body. They panic and flee the scene. Figuring it's their only way to prove their innocence, they try to find and catch the real killer on their own. And the investigation goes all the way to the top. Senators and "Eyes Wide Shut" parties. It's some crazy stuff. Thankfully, the movie isn't trying to sell verisimilitude, so there's no need to worry about the plausibility. Except for one delightful twist toward the end, the story plays out in very familiar ways.

Look, it has two appealing leads used well. I laughed a couple times. It clocks in at a refreshing 1h26m. While I'm waiting for the next Tenet or Mulan that will get me into a theater, this was a charming distraction.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend