Movie Review: Meet Cute (2022)

Synopsis: After experiencing the worst day of her life and wanting to kill herself, Sheila is given the opportunity to travel 24 hours into the past for a fresh start and ends up on an impromptu date with Gary. Wanting the moment to last forever, she continues to travel back in time, re-living the same day and date over and over again. However, when she grows bored with Gary, she decides to try to change him, creating problems.

Who's in it? The movie stars Kaley Cuoco, Pete Davidson, Kevin Corrigan, Deborah S. Craig and Rock Kohli.

Review: This movie has been on my list for some time now, but I didn't get an opportunity to watch it with my wife until last night. As it turns out, this movie was nothing like I was expecting it to be, and I mean that in both a good and bad way.

First of all, everything about this movie, the main stars, the preview and the IMDB description screams "comedy." After seeing the film, I honestly couldn't see any way of classifying it as one. This movie does have a couple somewhat funny scenes but, as the plot progresses, it is actually a fairly dark (and a bit depressing) drama.

Sheila (Cuoco) in particular is someone that is surprisingly difficult to like. She basically manipulates Gary (Davidson) by repeating the same date over and over again, learning all there is to know about him then, when she starts getting bored and realizes there are things about him she doesn't like, adds additional manipulation to completely change who he is. Oh, and let's not forget how she also kills her time-travel-created duplicate each morning. Her depression and wanting to kill herself are one thing. She showed signs of other mental health issues, and it was unclear how many of them were the result of the repeated time travel and how many existed before that.

I also wasn't loving Gary all that much either. I know he didn't believe Sheila when she said she was a time traveler but clearly there were some red flags he was also ignoring to allow the date to progress as far as it did. I didn't dislike him but also had a hard time seeing what Sheila saw in him and, while it was unethical, also didn't fault her for wanting to change him.

All that said, the movie's plot was made better as a result of that, I think. It was kind of a reverse Groundhog Day with the main character wanting to re-live the day over and over despite plenty of reasons to try to give things a chance. This, along with Sheila's deteriorating mental state after dozens of rejections from Gary as she attempted to get things right, made it less predictable than expected. 

I also found I liked some of the twists involving the time machine itself and the various capabilities that were revealed as the movie progressed which, in turn, allowed Sheila and Gary to impact each other's lives more than they realized. 

After a lot of thought, I'm also going to say I liked the ending. A lot of films try too hard to end things on a happy/upbeat note. This film's ending, while not sad, also stopped short of just ignoring all the damage that Sheila's time travel had done. It was one of those endings where the couple could live happily ever after, or Sheila might ultimately still kill herself. In other words, it worked for this particular film.

Final Opinion: If you are watching this movie expecting a lot of laughs, you'll be disappointed. However, it is a decent film with some intriguing characters that will make you think.

My Grade: B+