Writer/director Sophie Brooks’ sophomore feature Oh, Hi! premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and I’ve been hearing about it ever since. Billed as a screwed-up romantic comedy with a dark edge, I went into the Oh, Hi! screening expecting something completely different from the film I saw. But it wouldn’t be the first time a movie has been misleadingly sold in its ad campaign – sometimes the end result works, sometimes it doesn’t. Also, when you’re dealing with Sundance titles, there often seems to be a disconnect between the early buzz and the film audiences ultimately get to see. Oh, Hi! might be more sweet than savage, but I still had a pretty good time with the whole thing.

Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) have been dating for a few months. They decide to rent an Airbnb in the countryside for a weekend getaway. Once there, they find some sexual bondage gear in the bedroom closet, and after they make love, while he’s still tied to the bed, he explains he thought this relationship was casual and he’s not really looking for a serious relationship. She leaves him tied to the bed as she attempts to piece together a plan to show him why he should want a relationship with her. Things escalate and go sideways quickly.

Oh, Hi! is more earnest than I was expecting and less mean-spirited, and that’s what kind of threw me off here. I love a movie about a couple confined to a single space and being forced to work out their issues, but I think I needed these characters to be meaner. For a story where over the course of 90 minutes, both parties manipulate, lie, gaslight and ultimately behave like terrible people to each other, everyone is still a pretty decent person when we end the movie and I found that strange. It felt, on one hand, like letting these people off the hook, but on another, maybe it’s more realistic for everyone to have some kind of redeeming value. But overall, I left wishing Oh, Hi! had a darker, more cynical edge and I wish Brooks’ script leaned harder into the bitterness it flirts with.

I will say that I absolutely loved the performances here. Molly Gordon previously made a strong impression in films like Theater Camp and Am I OK?, and she is a delight to watch from beginning to end. And I have absolutely loved Logan Lerman since 2012’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower adaptation, and he’s an actor we don’t really see enough for my liking. Gordon and Lerman have terrific chemistry together, and the intricacies of this relationship are compelling to follow throughout. We also have Geraldine Viswanathan (using her native Australian accent) as Iris’ friend Max, who comes to her aid once the situation has gotten out of hand, and brings her boyfriend Kenny, played by John Reynolds. They’re doing good work as well, but are a little underutilized. It is interesting to see the dichotomy between these two couples and what does and doesn’t work in their respective relationships. But the script never goes as deeply into any of this as it could.

The filmmaking here is quite nice. Cinematographer Conor Murphy shot it, and it looks like the perfect weekend-out-of-town movie. Steven Price composed the score and it’s very charming as well. Not much to say regarding the production and costume design, everything is serviceably crafted. It does feel like maybe we could’ve given this another editing run-through, as the film feels a tad repetitive by the time we get to the third act.

Overall, Oh, Hi! probably won’t be remembered as a particularly insightful film about the complexities of modern relationships, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here. It wants to focus on the anxieties and insecurities millennials feel in romantic relationships, and the uncomfortable realities of commitment, but ultimately wants to send the viewer out on an uplifting note. I think Sophie Brooks’ script could have explored these characters on a deeper level and done a little more with this concept. It also feels like maybe this would have made a better short film (45 mins or so), because we seem to run out of things to say as we get through the third act. Even with my reservations, this was still a pretty good time at the movies. See it for Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman’s lovely performances. It’s also possible this is the kind of film you’d enjoy most if you walked in totally blind. I just left wishing the film had a little less heart and a little more bite.