The Lovebirds (2020) (Review)


Another victim of the unfolding pandemic, The Lovebirds saw its theatrical release cancelled by Paramount Pictures and fled the nest to Netflix, where it sits hoping you will abandon your watchlist plans for a romantic-comedy-mystery from the director of the Academy Award-nominated The Big Sick.

When Jibran and Leilani find themselves accidentally embroiled in a murder mystery, they are forced to go on the run from both the authorities and a strange group - all while hoping their already rocky relationship can survive the night. Michael Showalter reunites with Kumali Nanjiani, who brings Issa Rae along for the ride - but The Lovebirds fails to hit a sweet note.

It is rather ironic that Netflix only simply acquired this feature, because in so many ways The Lovebirds seems destined to languish in the streaming services' exhaustive library, joining the already-stale content forgotten a week after its debut. A shoddy amalgamation of genres and tones, Showalter's latest effort is a major disappointment; the film's visuals are garish, with the direction lacking the invention to alleviate how stilted it all feels. It mostly just lacks excitement though, bland and forgettable overall.

Its screenplay, written by Aaron Abrams and Brandan Gall, is its greatest weakness. While the romance can feel preordained and predictable, the mystery element is nonsensical, plotted as a series of increasingly-ludicrous and exhausting set pieces rather than a cohesive film, resulting in an awkwardly plotted muddle that never discovers its rhythm. Matched with underwhelming humour that fails to capitalise on either lead's natural talent, The Lovebirds is a missed opportunity. Arguably, it's a relief that it skipped over a cinema release entirely; if it's not worth your time from the comfort of your own home, it certainly didn't demand a theatrical trip.

Thankfully, the chemistry between our leads is strong enough to (at least partially) hold our interest. Issa Rae and Kumali Nanjiani throw themselves in, with the former giving a particularly spritely performance, although the latter's work is hardly differentiable from last year's Stuber, with which the overall film shares many similarities. Unfortunately for the pair, neither character is granted much in the way of personality, or individually developed outside of their relationship, with the film desperately in need of exciting supporting characters who never arrive.

The Lovebirds isn't worth even your lockdown time, a forgettable and rickety romantic-comedy-mystery that struggles with all the genres and tones it attempts. Admirable performances cannot salvage a film whose script fails to develop its characters or its plot with any sense of rhythm or excitement. You don't even need to fly the nest for this one, and it's still not worth the effort.

Summary: Issa Rae and Kumali Nanjiani cannot save The Lovebirds, whose poor writing and lacklustre humour mean it fails to lift off the ground.