Life Partners, the coming of age (which, in case you haven’t read any think pieces lately, is a period of life that can now extend well into your mid-twenties) comedy starring Leighton Meester as
Sasha, a (maybe) aspiring musician balancing duties at her dead-end job with her various lesbian-related social engagements, and Gillian Jacobs as Paige, her environmental lawyer best friend. As the movie opens, the two are very much on the same page. Likes include staging profanity laced arguments on busy streets, playing ’90s board games and eating funfetti cakes, dislikes include everyone they’ve ever dated. Until…Adam Brody (Tim). Tim starts dating Paige, and has her instantly smitten with his cute smile and ability to make a dinner reservation. Soon the couple is deeply entrenched in their couple-dom, leaving Sasha alone with only her mozzarella sticks as company.
With a storyline this rote and clichéd (they need to grow up to grow apart! friendships evolve, but that doesn’t diminish their value!) it’s up to the actors to inject the scenes with nuance and humor, and Meester and Jacobs more than rise to the occasion, making every bestie scene look like a sleepover you’d love to crash, wonderfully conveying the effortless comfort of spending time with a close friend. Where the film falters is the utter lack of chemistry between Jacobs and Brody, and the little thought put into their relationship. Their relationship grows more serious because it needs to in order to drive the splintering friendship narrative forward, but there’s never a scene between the two that seems as comfortable, or enjoyable, as the ones that feature the two girls together. It puts a serious damper on any grievance airing scene where the state of their friendship is discussed; you just want Paige to reveal she’s dumped Tim and everything can go back to the way it was. Maybe not the most mature decision, but definitely the most logical.
Kate McKinnon has a very brief but brilliant turn as Sasha’s unbalanced blind date, Abby Elliot appears as her flighty girlfriend who seems to have taken on every awful trait from the Girls girls, and Awkward’s Greer Grammer is terrific as Sasha’s cradle-robbing experiment.
Life Partners isn’t a great film, but solid performances from its two leads make it the perfect movie to catch with your own BFF
