A light and simple watch
Single set movies are notoriously difficult to get right. With very little visual variety, the film instead has to rely on both the acting and the writing to carry things through. Cube is a perfect example of how to get this right in the horror genre, while 12 Angry Men remains an absolute classic to this day. Stuck with You is not close to the greatness those movies exude, and in many ways the film actually betrays its central premise numerous times to spice things up. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, as there’s some good material in this brief but enjoyable comedic romp. The story is simple enough and sees two strangers – Gael and Hannah – stuck in an elevator on New Year’s Eve. Thankfully, help will arrive… in the morning. With no cell reception either, the pair are stuck together for the big celebrations. Inevitably, they start to learn more about each other. As a side note, the description Netflix have up for this one is a massive spoiler and I’d recommend not even reading that if you can. The pair are polar opposites, essentially, and across the hour we learn more about what’s driven these two individuals to end up in an elevator together. I won’t spoil it all here but accompanying these bits of exposition, the film adopts one of two tricks – both of which work pretty well. The first sees a quirky joke or slapstick moment thrown in for levity after a revealing bit of exposition. The other sees the elevator doors open up and the pair head into their past for a re-enactment of key moments in their life. This does work quite well, especially when Hannah is describing her distrust in men, but of course it also means that this isn’t a complete single-room movie in the conventional sense. The screenplay is pretty good though and the age old “opposites attract” trope is very much in play here. The jokes are a bit of a mixed bag but usually stick with slapstick or physical comedy. There’s a sprinkling of potty humour too which doesn’t really work and a couple of wordplay jokes that do, but the comedy is likely to be subjective across the board. There’s nothing particularly outstanding here but Stuck With You is a nice way to kill an hour if you’re after a light and simple romcom to watch.
