What IfPosted by Wilson Morales
Being in love is the most wonderful feeling a person can have, but having unrequited love for a friend is the worst feeling that can linger in one’s mind. This is “What If” is about. The one film that most can think of is the Billy Crystal – Meg Ryan classic, “When Harry Met Sally.” It was funny, clever, and an audience pleaser. “What If” is not quite is the same vein, but the leads are charming enough to hold your attention and see if lighting will strike up between these two.
Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is a med school dropout who’s not fairing well with relationships, especially when he catches his girl cheating. His roommate Allan (Adam Driver) seems to do better as he lives a care-free life with his girlfriend (Mackenzie Davis). Attending a party one evening, he meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan), who lives with her longtime boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall). Ben is in the financial world and travels a lot, leaving Chantry, an animator to be get acquainted with Wallace.
What starts off as an innocent friendship evolves into something more for Wallace. The more he spends time with Chantry, the more he becomes fascinated with her, but at the same time he realizes she has no clue how he feels. While everyone around him from Allan to his sister are encouraging him to go for broke and tell Chandry, he feels his confession may backfire on him.
It gets worse when Chantry and Ben are planning a move overseas so that Ben can be closer to his job and the time is ticking for Wallace to make a move or not.
With most romantic comedies, the outcome is usually predictable but it’s the setup that has to matter. The audience has to want these to be together and Radcliffe and Kazan have great chemistry on-screen. The script is well written without being contrived or pretentious. Both are charming and witty as is Driver, who seems to channeling his character from his TV series, “Girls.”
