The Lovebirds

The Lovebirds

Starring Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae, Anna Camp, Paul Sparks

Directed by Michael Showalter

Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae are two of today's best comedians, actors who aren't afraid to get fully into their craft and provide hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments seamlessly, so putting them together should've been a comedic match made in heaven.  While their performances were the strong highlight of "The Lovebirds," the rest of the film is a typical, garden variety action comedy that other films (most notably "Game Night") did much better.

Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) start off their relationship with sparks, humor, and genuine friendliness, but four years later they find their relationship on the rocks.  Jibran is a schedule-setter who needs structure and balance to everything, while Leilani is free-spirited and spontaneous, and they feel that their relationship might be over.  Then they accidentally hit a bicyclist, and a man calling himself a police officer (Paul Sparks) commandeers their car to bring the biker to justice - but instead runs him over repeatedly then fleeing the scene.

Jibran and Leilani feel that the cops will be looking for them, and they leave the scene of the crime after some witnesses come forward.  Unsure of what to do, they decide to set out to prove their innocence and bring whoever is responsible to justice themselves, all the while bickering and arguing about their relationship as they unknowingly grow closer.

Director Michael Showalter and actor Kumail Nanjiani's last outing was the spectacular "The Big Sick," and to expect something of equal quality to strike again isn't really fair to either one of them, since "The Big Sick" was a biographical film based on Nanjiani's real-life situation, but I expected at least something more than just a trivial, scene-by-scene event that "The Lovebirds" delivered.  Like I said before, it seemed like a lazier version of "Game Night," as our hapless couple travel from one outlandish predicament to another in order to solve a bizarre crime and clear their names while avoiding a deadly assassin and a gang of mysterious cultists.  You can tell what happens next long before it does, and offers little to no surprises.

Yet the magic of the film comes from the flawless chemistry between Nanjiani and Rae, both of whom still deliver to the best of their games.  Their banter is hilarious and I could tell there were several moments where they just ad-lipped their quips, which made it all the more enjoyable and believable.  You truly believed these two were a couple on the rocks, and not just actors playing against a script.  It felt natural and organic, and both of them were truly enjoyable and easily ones you root for, even though you know they're never in any real mortal danger, even against an option of bacon grease to the face or a kick from a horse.

Much like last year's "Queen & Slim," "The Lovebirds" centers on a minority couple on the run from the law for a crime they didn't technically commit, and while "Queen & Slim" obviously focused on the racial disparity between minorities and the police, "The Lovebirds" only makes passing mentions at their predicament in a comedic style, especially when they freak out seeing a cop slowly driving by them, thinking they've been spotted but after the cop drives off, breathing a sigh of relief by saying he was just "a garden variety racist."  There's a few conversations about their race, but it plays out more in how they need to blend into the situations they find themselves in, only to be surrounded by white people and thereby sticking out like sore thumbs.  

The film runs at a scant one hour twenty-six minutes, so there's not a lot of dull moments in the film, which helped in making it more than just a dull, lazy film.  It's enjoyable at its simplistic form, a movie that you can sit back and relax, turn off your mind and forget the problems of the world for a short time as you find yourself enjoying the experience, no matter how elementary it is.

With the comedic pairing of Kamil Nanjiani and Issa Rae, "The Lovebirds" rises above the typical action-romantic-comedy trope and delivers a enjoyable escape from reality for a short amount of time.

The Score: B