Mark Reviews Movies: SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW

Somebody I Used to Know, Amazon Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 9, 2023

Everybody who matters to the plot of Somebody I Used to Know has some kind of personal issue or hang-up, and each one's awareness of that fact makes it easier to know or suspect that something is going on with the others. Basically, the screenplay by director Dave Franco and star Alison Brie give us characters who are just smart enough to be a step or two ahead of whatever plot-based shenanigans could have been attempted here. That means it's more about the characters, their problems, and how all of those intersect to create a scenario that's a bit more thoughtful than it is convoluted.

That's the vague description of it. The short summary is that it's about a woman who finds herself caught up in the wedding preparations of a man she once loved. He's about to marry a different woman, obviously, but the ex-girlfriend is convinced she still has feelings for him—and suspects that he still might have similar feelings for her.

In theory, this is a fine setup for a clever and somewhat subversive romantic comedy, because Ally (Brie) is going to try to sabotage the upcoming wedding or at least give her ex-boyfriend Sean (Jay Ellis) a thing or two to think about before he weds another woman instead of giving her a second chance, of course. If that sounds a bit familiar, don't worry about that, because Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons), Sean's bride-to-be, has seen that particular film, too. When the two women finally have a chance to sit down and have a face-to-face talk without any of the planned pre-nuptial events or any other family and friends around, Cassidy puts the question right to Ally. She's not trying to be Julia Roberts sabotaging her best friend's wedding or some nonsense like that, right?

We're getting a bit ahead of the point here, but it's important to note how Franco and Brie are aware of the expectations, formulas, and conceits that typically go along with this kind of material. They'll have little of it, making this a kind of a subversion of a subversion of sorts, but what that really means for this particular film is that it's one that does understand its characters, wants them to come face-to-face with obvious and underlying issues that have led them to this predicament, and sympathizes with the fact that figuring out oneself is just as hard as, if not harder than, all of the complications we end up creating in the process.

The longer summary of the story is that Ally is a TV producer, currently finishing up the second season of a reality show that's ostensibly a baking competition—but that has ended up being about big egos and sex. Her dream was once to become a documentary filmmaker, but Ally has had to push that goal aside in order to have a successful career. Despite the hard work and long hours and sacrifices of her principles, Ally learns that her show is being canceled, so she makes a surprise trip to her hometown to visit her mother (played by Julie Hagerty) and figure out what the next step of her career will be.

At a local bar, she reunites with Sean—after she fails to hide from him. The two get to talking, spend the rest of the day and night hanging out, discuss how life has brought them to these different places, wonder if they made the right choices, and have a slightly awkward moment when Ally invites herself back to his place.

Sean refuses, saying it wouldn't be the best idea since she's only in town for a few days, but after showing up at what seems to be a lunch for family and friends, Ally learns the truth. Sean is engaged to Cassidy, and the two will be married in a matter of days. When mutual friend Benny (Danny Pudi) reveals that Sean went to the bar specifically after finding out Ally was there, our protagonist decides to join the weekend's various festivities and see if there's a chance of something rekindling between her and Sean.

It's not as if Ally is some conniving, spiteful villain in this situation, just as it's not as if Sean is some innocent victim of some attempt to ruin his potential happiness. They're just ordinary, confused people, and the film neither judges them nor lets them off the hook for the mess they previously made of their relationship, since Ally wanted to take a different path in life than Sean, or the mess either one easily could make of this precarious situation. Here, we get two main characters who are fundamentally flawed in completely different ways, intelligent enough to know that, and too stubborn or uncertain to do anything about it.

That's why Cassidy, as well as Clemons' instantly sympathetic and acutely knowing performance, is so important to all of this. She's the one who could be hurt by Ally's interference and/or her fiancé's apparent inability to let go of the past—and that extends beyond his lingering feelings for Ally, too. As Ally becomes more entrenched in the wedding preparations, Cassidy starts to confide in her, because she knows what kind of person Sean was and still appears to be, since Cassidy is about to put aside her own dreams for him.

Amidst all of the scheming and comic relief (from Pudi, Hagerty, and Haley Joel Osment as Sean's too-enthusiastic brother), there is a smart and insightful character study about how people latch on to ideas and perceived ideals of the past. Somebody I Used to Know allows its characters to be messier than any gimmicky situation.

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