If you’re like me and want an escape from this week’s news and quite frankly the never-ending late March snowstorms, “Your Place or Mine” is the ticket.
It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s easily digestible and easy on the eyes with Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher as the leads. I think it will become one of those heavy rotation airplane films like my personal go-to’s “Something’s Gotta Give” or “The Holiday.”
“Your Place or Mine” is the directorial debut of longtime writer Aline Brosh McKenna, and she wrote the screenplay. McKenna also wrote “The Devil Wears Prada” - another airplane go-to.
Witherspoon plays Debbie, an overprotective single mom who lives in Los Angeles. Kutcher plays Peter an uber successful bachelor who lives in New York City.
They hooked up once 20 years ago and have been best friends ever since. They talk to each other first thing in the morning and multiple times a day. But it’s hard to believe there was ever a spark between these two entirely opposite human beings. And that’s where our movie begins.
Debbie lives in a cluttered craftsman in a quiet neighborhood in Los Angeles, while Peter’s sky rise apartment in New York City could be on the cover of Modern Luxury/Manhattan magazine.
A few plot twists later and suddenly Debbie is in Peter’s high rise attending an accounting class and Peter is in her craftsman taking care of Debbie’s son Jack (Wesley Kimmel).
Peter thinks Jack is too cautious and too anxiety riddled. He tries to bring him out of his overprotective shell by getting him on a hockey rink.
Debbie discovers a manuscript that Peter wrote (he’s a wannabe writer) tucked in a drawer in his apartment. She finds it compelling. She then meets a sexy publisher Theo Martin (Jesse Williams) and decides to give him the manuscript without Peter’s permission.
Oh, Debbie and Theo hook up.
Peter almost gets Jack killed on the hockey rink, or so Debbie thinks, so she freaks out and flies back to Los Angeles in what she perceives as an emergency. All this, so Peter and Debbie can have a fight in person.
Remember this is an escapist feel good film - not “Sophie’s Choice.”
I won’t ruin the ending because you know how it ends. And yes, it involves a scene in an airport.
“Your Place or Mine” is streaming on Netflix. It’s rated PG-13 and has a running time of 109 minutes.
