Staring: Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Sparks
Written by: Aaron Abrams, Brendan Gall, Martin Gero, Directed by: Michael Showalter Run time 1h 26min
Isn’t love swell? At least that is what the saying says. While that might be true for everyone when they first meet that someone special, but as the years go by, most of us start to pick up on the things that make us despise, rather than love our significant other. That is just what happens with Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) two people who can’t get enough of each other, to two people who find every little thing to argue about. You have to admit when you are at the point where you argue if you could win the Amazing Race or not, it might be time to reexamine your relationship.
That is exactly the point out lovebirds are at and while they are on the way to a friend’s party, that re-examine starts to take place, but then something happens. While auguring Jibran hits a guy on a bike, but that is where things really take a turn. After the guy refuses help and jumps back on his bike and takes off, another man seizes Jibran and Leilani’s car, claiming to be the police, and peruses the guy on the bike at a reckless pace. This guy does not seem to care about the bicyclist well-being, nor anyone else with the way he is driving to catch him, and that becomes evident when he runs over the bicyclist more than once when he finally catches up to him. After the deed is done the cop gets out of the car and walks away, leaving Jibran and Leilani with a crime scene they did not create. The rest of the night is the two of them try to solve the puzzle of what happened, then everything goes wrong and the two worst detectives attempt to solve both their relationship and a crime all in the same night.
When you put two of the best comedians in the same movie, great things will be expected. If those two said comedians wrote the screenplay, I might feel better, but at least you have an out if you don’t like it. The good news is you are going to laugh, I mean with Rae and Nanjiani, it would be hard not to. The problem is the story by Aaron Abrams, Brendan Gall, and Martin Gero doesn’t have enough laughs, and gives most of them away in the trailer. The two fish out of the water story where they are trying to do everything they can not to solve the problem is nothing new, you just hope the jokes would be enough to get you through it all. They get you through some, but again if you have seen the trailer more than one time, you have seen most of what they have to offer. I wanted to enjoy The Lovebirds, because I have enjoyed almost all of the things Nanjiani and Rae have done. Instead I am left thinking what could have been and find myself settling. But what else am I going to do? Go see a better movie at the theater?
The Lovebirds is currently streaming on Netflix
