THE OTHER ZOEY - Mark Reviews Movies

The Other Zoey, Brainstorm Media

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 19, 2023

A unique hook can help to sell the story of a romantic comedy. Let's just say The Other Zoey doesn't have one, since it's about a young woman who is cynical about love, as well as all of the clichés in rom-coms, and cares more about realistic things like statistics and data. It doesn't matter, though, as long as the characters and story themselves sell us on both the romance and the comedy of the premise.

Well, Matthew Tabak's screenplay doesn't do that, either. It's either a lazy, wholly unconsidered bit of plotting or an intentional satire of that sort of plot in other romantic comedies. To be sure, Tabak includes some references to and digs at a couple specific examples of the genre—mostly because Zoey Miller (Josephine Langford), the skeptical protagonist, sees nothing of value in the commercialization and dumbing down of an emotion that she isn't even convinced is real. As one would expect from an idly written rom-com, though, it's only a matter of time before Zoey learns the error of her beliefs, finding herself caught up in exactly the sort of situations and predicaments that might befall the protagonist of a movie.

The movie, directed by Sara Zandieh, doesn't seem to have a sense of humor about that. It simply plays it straight—not in that it's joke-free (although the laugh-to-thud ratio on those gags favors the latter quite a bit), but in the way that none of these characters, even the allegedly intelligent and cynical one, seems to realize how absurd and avoidable all of these uncomfortable situations and predicaments are.

They're just along for the ride, because these characters are in a bland, ridiculous romantic comedy. The movie doesn't have any critique of its own laziness, so we can only assume that it is, well, a lazy effort.

Take, as a prime example, the sequence of events that sets the plot in motion. We meet Zoey, a college student studying computer programming, and learn her rational outlook on romantic compatibility—that people who share things in common are more likely to stay together, if such a thing is even possible. Into the school book store where she's employed for a work study program walks Zach MacLaren (Drew Starkey), the college soccer star. The two banter and bicker, since Zoey has no interest in him, as their interests are completely different, before Zach leaves behind his credit card.

Zoey chases after him, and distracted by her shouting, Zach rides his bike into a reversing car. Suffering a concussion, Zach thinks Zoey is his girlfriend, another young woman at school named Zoey, and instead of correcting him or telling the paramedics that he's mistaken or politely excusing herself to go back to the job that one assumes is a necessity for her financial aid, Zoey ends up going with him to the hospital.

Obviously, whatever misunderstanding is happening here can be cleared up with a single line of dialogue. Instead, Zoey doesn't correct Zach's parents (played by Andie McDowell and Patrick Fabian) when they assume she's their son's girlfriend. In fact, she ends up accepting an invitation to dinner at their house.

None of this makes any sense, because Zoey has no personal investment or interest in Zach. There's no motivation for her to do any of this, but she does, because a plot requires a motivation. It eventually arrives in the person of Miles (Archie Renaux), a fellow cynic of all things romantic, whom Zoey noticed at a lecture earlier and who, by an incredible coincidence, happens to be Zach's cousin. To try to woo him, Zoey decides to continue what's now a lie about being Zach's girlfriend so that she can go on ski trip with the entire family.

The rest of the story forces matters almost as much as the inciting incident. Obviously, Zoey and Miles have some moments together, but so, too, do Zoey and Zach, who turns out not to be the guy she assumed he was. Maybe that's because of the traumatic brain injury, but such thinking would also introduce the idea that our protagonist is quite a terrible person for taking advantage of this guy's medical condition and continuing a deception that's inevitably going to be discovered. She also can't be anywhere near as intelligent as the movie insists she is if she can't think even one step ahead to that conclusion.

Instead, it's all played with a cutesy tone that feels false for the character and like a veil to cover up the fact that nothing about the plot is consistent or motivated in any reasonable way. If The Other Zoey can't convince us of a reason for any of its plot to happen, does the rest of it really matter?

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