Coming from Goon director Michael Dowse, What If (previously titled The F Word) tackles that age old question: can a man and a woman be just friends? When Harry Met Sally asked it, and it was about time it was thrown out into the open again, this time with a witty, yet melancholy, hard candy shell, hiding a gooey romantic comedy at it's centre.
When Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe), still struggling to get over his break up from a year previously, meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan), he immediately falls for her, but is hampered by the fact that she has a boyfriend, Ben (Rafe Spall). Willing to have nothing to do with her ever again, Wallace finds life doesn't have the same plan, as a random encounter between the pair blossoms into a full blown friendship, with the spectre of their growing mutual attraction to each other looming large in the background.
Quite early on in What If you get a definite feel of (500) Days of Summer to proceedings, with the plot and dialogue taking on shades of the Marc Webb's indie hit. But, thankfully, as soon as those thoughts creep in, they are pushed right back out again, since What If is charming and inventive enough to stand on it's own two feet. Elan Mastai's script goes a long way in helping this, brimming with choice one liners and skewing rom-com cliches for the most part. The main change to the usual cliches is that Ben is actually a nice guy. Granted, his first meeting with Wallace features a quite forceful questioning of Wallace's intentions, but you're actually shown quite a number of times that Chantry would be better off with him, which spins the 'will they/won't they?' question to 'should they?'. Adam Driver and Mckenzie Davis are there to balance the question, a couple who were in Wallace and Chantry's position who have made it work. It's a nice addition to proceedings, and keeps the question at the heart of the movie ticking over.
The plot is happy enough to just move at its own pace, dipping in and out of Wallace and Chantry's lives, stuck in their happy rut as they are, as everything else moves at break neck speed around them. The characters are immensely likable, any early feeling that the are kooky for the sake of being kooky disappearing as soon as they open their mouths. After a refreshing first and second act, the cliches sadly start to creep in, and the finale, which transplants the action from Toronto to a thankfully stereotype free Dublin, could be any number of romantic comedies than came before. It is a satisfying end to the movie, but as much as the movie seemed to edging away from cliches, embracing them fully at the end seemed a bit too easy.
Another step on his journey to get away from The Boy Who Lived, Radcliffe is incredibly convincing as the charming, but damaged, Wallace. He is carrying a massive weight on his shoulders, from his break up to his issues with his parents infidelity, and you can see it on his face in every frame. He also handles the script smart dialogue with ease, and proves to have great chemistry with Kazan. It's a good thing really, because many a rom-com has been felled at the first hurdle the couple really aren't suited for each other. With a role that could have easily become just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Kazan holds back on that with Chantry. Kookiness is kept to a minimum (but it does break its way through), and she brings the charm on her end as well. The lead pair are helped by a great supporting cast, especially Driver who threatens to steal the show on more than one occasion.
Not fully embracing its rejection of the usual cliches, What If is still an incredibly enjoyable and charming screw ball rom com, with a fantastic pairing taking the lead.
