A muddled face-the-past comedy that changes course every few minutes, "You Again" stretches hard to justify its premise and then can't decide what to do with it.
There's only one screenwriter credited (first-timer Moe Jelline), but the script feels like the product of three or four authors who can't agree on A: the lessons to be learned from high-school bullying and its real-world aftermath, and B: whether they care about teaching lessons at all. The movie would have been more fun, and no less enlightening, if Jelline had put all his energy into the comedy.
That's especially true given the shallowness of the screenplay's first insights. When we meet Marni (Kristen Bell), she's a victimized high schooler looked down upon by even nerds and fat kids; a few years later, she's a high-powered PR executive. What turned things around for Marni? Swapping glasses for contacts and getting an expensive haircut.
OK, so we're not dealing with "Freaks and Geeks" here (though Bell does make a pretty convincing nerd). Cut to years later, when Marni's coming home for her beloved bro's wedding to a woman she hasn't met - a woman who turns out to be Joanna (Odette Yustman), her main tormentor in high school.
Set your skepticism aside if you want to enjoy the next hour, because a few medium-funny scenes flow out of this totally implausible premise - especially once we learn that Joanna's rich aunt (Sigourney Weaver), who just arrived to preside over the luxe nuptials, happens to be the girl who ruined prom for Marni's mom (Jamie Lee Curtis).
The thing that makes this development promising is that it happens right after Curtis has finished telling Bell to forgive and forget the indignities of her own past. "You Again" might have used this moment to declare life lessons futile and head toward sharp comedy, as underdogs plot to destroy the queen bees who wrecked their lives. Instead, it sticks to a Disney Channel vibe, whipping up slapstick trials for Marni and Mom while popping in, whenever things threaten to get too fun, to scold us all about our thirst for revenge.
This flip-flopping gets unbearable at the bride and groom's rehearsal dinner, which devolves into catfights and naked emotional breakdowns and actually expects us to be moved by the forced reconciliations tacked onto them. We might come to suspect we met this movie back in high school - and that it wasn't nice to us then, either.
'You Again'
Our grade: C-
Genres: Comedy, Romantic Comedy
Running Time: 105 min
MPAA rating: PG
Release Date: Sep 24, 2010
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
