WHAT IF
DIRECTOR: Michael Dowse
CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan, Rafe Spall, Adam Driver,
CLASSIFICATION: 13LS
RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes
RATING: ***
THE de-Potterisation of Daniel Radcliffe continues. It’s still hard to imagine the now grown man as anything other than the lovable little orphan with a white owl and a magic wand, but he manages to make us forget, if just for a bit, in the romantic comedy What If.
It helps that Radcliffe, still boyish at 25, stars opposite Zoe Kazan. She’s 30, but with her big, bright eyes and irrepressible sense of wonder, she always looks a little like a girl playing dress-up. If Radcliffe’s Wallace were paired with anyone who looked more mature we might be back to square one, wondering when Hermione was going to come along and save the day. But they have good chemistry as two introverts who bond over magnetic poetry while trying to avoid small talk with strangers at a party.
What If isn’t entirely formulaic. For one thing, the requisite obstacle between Wallace and Chantry’s happily ever after is Chantry’s pleasant live-in boyfriend, Ben (Rafe Spall). He’s not easy to dislike, and you could envision the two staying together and having a nice life.
What If is also more foul-mouthed than your average spin on When Harry Met Sally. Scenes are intercut with cute ditties as adorable animation flits across the screen. Yet everyone in the movie, from Chantry and Wallace to his best friend, Allan (Adam Driver), is obsessed with scatology. The amount of faeces in Elvis Presley’s body when he died seems like a strange topic to add sparks to a fledgling romance, but Radcliffe and Kazan do their best to make it work. They are, after all, just friends, since she has a boyfriend. So maybe bathroom humour isn’t entirely out of place.
There’s also a fair amount of pratfalling, including a shocking yet laugh-out-loud moment during a dinner at which Wallace is supposed to meet Ben for the first time. And your run-of-the-mill big statement moment, when Wallace tries to profess his love – because of course they’re not really just friends – doesn’t go according to plan.
But even as What If veers slightly off the beaten path, we’re not completely out in the woods. There’s still quippy dialogue and near-kisses, outlandish supporting characters and a scene in a dressing room. (If life were a romantic comedy, we’d all be chatting over coffee and trying on clothes.)
Yet the fact that we’re still asking if men and women can be friends is exhausting. Sure, Harry and Sally couldn’t make it work, but does anyone outside of Hollywood screenwriters actually believe this is a question worth asking? If you can suspend your incredulity for a moment, What If has its bright moments. And that’s thanks mostly to its leads, who manage to do what Radcliffe has always done well: conjure up a little magic. – Washington Post
If you liked Ruby Sparks or The Spectacular Now, you will like this.