In Dating & New York, writer/director Jonah Feingold sticks to the basics of the romantic comedy, and that more or less works in its favor. In many ways, it reminds one of the subgenre efforts of the 1990s, usually directed by Nora Ephron and starring Tom Hanks and/or Meg Ryan: The two characters at its center were polar opposites, and the plot was their eventual realization of their love for each other after a meet cute and a series of stops and starts. The two lovers in this movie even connect over the internet by way of a telephone (a smartphone, technically), which combines the gimmicks of at least two of the Hanks-Ryan star vehicles intimated above.
The only job for Feingold and the actors, then, is to convince us that this couple is actually perfect for each other, if only they’d wipe away the cobwebs of insecurity and cynicism to see it. The movie does precisely that, mainly because we instinctively like Milo (Jaboukie Young-White) and Wendy (Francesca Reale), in spite or because of their respective insecurity and cynicism. He’s been jilted by enough prospective dates to wonder if anyone will ever have an interest in him, and she’s been involved with enough self-possessed men to overanalyze all the other ones she meets. These jagged pieces of a romantic puzzle will fit together by the end of the story. That, by the way, isn’t a spoiler. It’s just the way the subgenre works.
This is a pretty good romantic comedy, too, brimming with witty dialogue that, thankfully, hasn’t been flooded with pop-culture references or snark. Milo and Wendy are each interesting, in large part because they never suggest a feeling of constant awareness that an audience is watching a movie about them. Young-White and Reale, both quite good, allow us a glimpse at complex personalities, so that the romance that develops quite literally solidifies in the film’s last scene. Even then, the film’s honesty toward its characters makes us constantly aware that things may change, as things so often do in relationships. This may or may not be a “happily ever after” story. Only time will tell.
Milo and Wendy meet over a dating app, and the friendship almost immediately shifts into a friends-with-benefits style of relationship. As one might guess from previous reading, they want different things: Milo wants a deep emotional connection, so much so that, on an outing to a swanky bar with his friend Hank (Brian Muller), he walks away in mid-conversation with a nearby beauty the moment she mentions her boyfriend. Hank, meanwhile, reasons that actually pointing at the prettiest girl in the bar is a good way of choosing with whom to strike up a conversation. That act introduces him to Jessie (Catherine Cohen) and leads to a long-term romance of his own.
Wendy, meanwhile, begins to resent Milo’s dating life, and the complications should be easy to predict. Each of them discovers feelings for the other that are blatantly forbidden by the friendship contract drawn up by Wendy, leading Milo to state three little words that must not, for any reason, be stated in the expected order. Thankfully, the potential for tiresome romcom tropes and genre staples is consistently undermined by the truths the film has saved for its unanticipated third act. There is no rush for an airport or train station, and even the Grand Gesture of Love is a mutually shared one – simply a series of glances wordlessly gone unnoticed until neither party can ignore them.
It’s simple, then, but also quite lovely, and such loveliness cuts through the embellishments elsewhere that only offer distraction – namely, the way a wise doorman (Jerry Ferrara) both offers advice to the central couple and narrates their story as if it’s a fairy tale. Dating & New York is unassumingly wise and surprisingly funny.
Photo courtesy of IFC Films
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