Molly Gordon Is One Bad Date Away From the Looney Bin in ‘Oh, Hi!’

Sandra Miska

A romantic weekend for two 30ish lovers takes a sharp left turn in Sophie Brooks’ dark comedy “Oh, Hi!!” Molly Gordon stars as Iris, a young woman who thinks she has finally found an ideal mate in Isaac (Logan Lerman), a handsome and charming lad whom she has been seeing for four months. However, during a getaway to upstate New York, the pair’s first trip together, Isaac drops a bomb on Iris that leads her to resort to desperate measures in a misguided attempt to ensure that the two can have a future together.

“Oh, Hi!” begins on an ominous note, with Iris’s best friend, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), showing up to an Airbnb late at night and being informed by her pal that she has done something. A flashback to 33 hours earlier shows Iris in a much better place. Her and Isaac’s mini vaca is off to an idyllic start. He seems great, but in a way that feels natural, not too good to be true, and Gordon and Lerman have an effortless chemistry together. They buy strawberries from a roadside stand, go swimming in a lake, and enjoy a delicious dinner prepared by Isaac. They have a heart to heart about past heartbreaks. The only hiccup early on is an incident involving a creepy neighbor, Steve (David Cross), who bothers them while they’re swimming.

Later, the pair go snooping in the house and find some bondage gear, which guarantees a start to an eventful night. Isaac lets Iris handcuff him to the four-poster bed, and after a satisfying romp, she expresses her happiness about their first trip as a couple going so well. He then proceeds to drop the bomb: He does not see them as being a couple and is not ready for a relationship. Not only that, he is still sleeping with other women. Devastated, she leaves him cuffed to the bed as she leaves to FaceTime her mother (Polly Draper). After receiving some bad advice from the older woman, Iris decides to keep Isaac chained, effectively taking him hostage, while she works to convince him that she is his dream woman.

As dark as all this sounds, the film proceeds to maintain a relatively lighthearted tone while it explores Iris and Isaac’s individual issues that have led them both to this place. Is Iris certifiable, or is the modern dating scene really that bad? Is Isaac just a thoughtless guy who likes to keep his options open, or does he have more deep-seated issues? Unfortunately, Brooks does not dive as deep as she could into these characters, nor does she lean hard enough into the darkness and depravity of the situation. Instead, she gets sidetracked by Iris and Max resorting to TikTok-level witchcraft in order to erase Isaac’s memory. It is funny that they do not focus their energy more on a love spell.

If there is any voice of reason here, it would be Kenny (John Reynolds), Max’s go-with-the-flow boyfriend. Unfortunately, he gets there too late to do anything without getting his British-born lady, who is on a Visa, in some major legal trouble. Reynolds and Lerman are enjoyable to watch as their characters engage in some forced bro time.

Overall, “Oh, Hi!” has an interesting premise, but never lives up to the potential it shows early on. There is too much floundering and missed opportunities in the film’s second half. However, with this sophomore feature of hers, Brooks certainly shows promise as a filmmaker with her talent for directing emotionally-charged scenes and putting her characters in interesting predicaments.

“Oh, Hi!!” releases July 25 in theaters nationwide.