Film Review – What Happens Later (2023)
Her name will always be synonymous with romantic comedy. True, Meg Ryan made dramas as well, but the unofficial title of Queen Of The Rom-Com in the 80s and 90s will always be hers, courtesy of Sleepless In Seattle, You’ve Got Mail and, of course, When Harry Met Sally. There’s a certain similarity between her best-known film and her latest, What Happens Later, which not only sees her back on familiar territory but also puts her in the director’s chair.
It’s February 29th, there’s a snowstorm whirling outside and Willa’s (Ryan) plane to Boston has been diverted to an anonymous regional airport as the weather gets worse. The same happens to Bill (David Duchovny), who is on his way to Austin and ends up at the same terminal so, 25 years after they broke up, the former lovers find themselves face to face again. Over the course of the night, they talk about their relationship and re-trace their steps, examining why they broke up and comparing the dreams of their younger selves with their lives now. But is their meeting accidental or is there something more mysteriously magical at work?
Ryan has dedicated her second film as a director to Nora Ephron, the brains behind the three films that made her such a romantic favourite. Her aspirations couldn’t be more clear but the mention of Ephron in the credits underlines that the film doesn’t come anywhere close to those classic titles, falling short when it comes to both rom and com. After just half an hour, there’s a large hint that British audiences won’t be able to miss, when one of Ryan and Duchovny’s regular bouts of bickering descends into something reminiscent of The Chuckle Brothers – yes, literally “to me, to you”. It doesn’t get any better.
What is pretty much a two-hander, apart from interventions from the airport tannoy, alternates between bickering, reflections on the couple’s past and monologues. It’s no wonder they’re always sat alone in the airport terminal: nobody approaches any of the acres of vacant seats in their vicinity and you can’t blame them. Being stuck in an airport is bad enough in itself, but the tedium of their near non-stop conversation is adding insult to injury. Yet, there are times when the airport seems so strangely devoid of other travellers that there just has to be a supernatural force behind it all. Are they dreaming or could they have died? Could they be in purgatory? We’d know how they felt ….
For a story which repeatedly emphasises the chemistry between the couple – both admit to still missing their unique relationship – the sad fact is that Ryan and Duchovny have very little on-screen spark. The “opposites attract” premise wears thin at double quick speed. She’s into alternative philosophies, something of a hippy who’s never grown up and her inability to stop talking and just listen becomes irritating. He’s more conventional, unhappy at aging and anxious about anything and everything. No wonder they split up and, as the film stretches to a paper-thin 100 minutes, our ability to care about their history starts to wither away in the cold. Ryan’s return to the rom-com comes with built-in expectations. The hair may still be blonde and wavy, she might still be quirky, but she needs much better material than this to resurrect her glory days. If What Happens Later was a question, the reply would be a sigh of resignation, followed by “not much.”
★★
Comedy, Romance | UK cinemas from 15 December 2023 | Universal Studios | Certificate: 15 | Dir. Meg Ryan| Meg Ryan, David Duchovny.
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