I Want You Back review – fun and fizzy romcom riff on Strangers on a Train

When making a romcom, there's a deep well to draw obvious inspiration (as well as possible cliches) from, though Jason Orley's fun and fizzy new film I Want You Back takes a slightly more unpredictable route: it riffs on Strangers on a Train as much as it does any of the classic genre staples, honing in on two recent dumpees who agree to help one another split their respective exes up from their new beaus, hoping for a suspicion-free reunion down the road. Of course, the process is complicated by their own burgeoning feelings along the way.

These break-up victims are Emma (Jenny Slate), a 30-something dental receptionist who still lives with college-aged roommates, and Peter (Charlie Day), a semi-successful executive at a retirement-home company whose life has become a bit stagnant. Their partners – personal trainer Noah (Scott Eastwood) for Emma and teacher Anne (Gina Rodriguez) for Peter – want to move forward in their lives in a way that leaves Emma and Peter behind. And so, after a tear-soaked chance meeting in the stairwell of the office complex Emma and Peter share, they hatch their scheme of romantic deception.

It’s an obviously immoral plan, so the casting of Slate and Day is perfect, two actors who can even play borderline sociopathy while staying funny and lovable – though I Want You Back is a far gentler proposition than, say, Slate’s work in Kroll Show or Day’s in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The pair share a great comic chemistry with both one another and most of the supporting cast – Day’s energy especially manages to draw a more charming performance than usual out of Eastwood in the scenes they share after Peter goes undercover as Noah’s latest personal training client.

I Want You Back definitely leans more into the com than the rom half of the equation, always funnier than it is genuinely affecting, but that’s no bad thing, and there are some big laughs to be had here. The script, from Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, really plays to its stars’ strengths, and Slate and Day capitalise on that with some really fantastic line reads, especially in hushed whispers of shock or misery. Eastwood and Rodriguez have to play things straighter by default, but Manny Jacinto gets some scene-stealing gags as Anne’s new partner Logan, a middle-school drama teacher with grand artistic ambitions and extravagant tastes. There’s also a cameo for Pete Davidson that feels a bit laboured initially, but pays off with perhaps the funniest moment in the whole film.

Even if there are some wobbles come the finale – the premise is one that inherently makes it hard to stick the landing, and Slate and Day always convince more as just good friends than as the romantic prospects the genre demands they become – I Want You Back is still a lovely, cosy time. With good jokes delivered by a great star pair and an earnest story of overcoming a staid romantic comfort zone for something more frightening but more fulfilling, it should prove a great Valentine's crowd-pleaser.

I Want You Back is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.