The opening montage of Which Brings Me To You features slow-motion shots of happy, smiling people celebrating a wedding. Jane (Lucy Hale) stands among these excited wedding attendees, looking less than pleased. We jump to the reception and she is alone at the bar ordering a vodka on the rocks. Will (Nat Wolff) approaches her and she suggests that they have sex in the coatroom closet. Things are zipping along at a predictable pace until Will stops the hot and heavy action to ask if they can just talk instead. 

 

It takes some convincing but finally Jane, who is a bit drunk, obliges. The two begin swapping stories about their past heartbreaks. Each has had a series of unfortunate dating situations that has left them both skeptical about love. As we get to know each character through their worst dating mishaps, Jane and Will begin to have a deeper appreciation of each other. 

 

Clocking in at one hour and thirty-eight minutes, Which Brings Me To You doesn’t overstay its welcome. And when we’re in Jane and Will’s past things are complex, interesting, and compelling. But the intermittent scenes in the present feel oddly out of place and forced. In between stories about exes, Will and Jane break into an abandoned amusement park and crash a couple’s anniversary party. These scenes should showcase their budding situationship but instead fall flat, especially compared to the flashback scenes that are much more interesting. 

 

That isn’t the fault of Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff. The two share an amusing sort of chemistry and Hale delivers her lines with a biting candidness that’s refreshing for a romance movie. Wolff proves to be Hale’s equal and his gentle delivery provides a nice contrast. Their best moments occur in the flashback scenes (they actually appear in the scenes, watching their own lives like a movie) where they tease each other for making bad choices and tenderly share in the moments of sadness. 

 

This isn’t your typical romance movie. It acknowledges how hard it is to maintain a relationship and paints a very different picture than rom coms with fairy tale-esque endings. Things get heavy on more than one occasion and the meta nature of the storytelling is a fun twist that makes it feel fresh. Which Brings Me To You plays with form with mixed results but the actors have enough chemistry to smooth over the bumpy parts of the movie and keep things enjoyable to watch.