THE OTHER ZOEY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
The romantic comedy The Other Zoey reminded me of that other romantic comedy where a man gets amnesia about whom he’s dating, so he can mistake the protagonist for his girlfriend.
I can’t say whether the filmmakers are familiar with 1995’s While You Were Sleeping, and I realize naming that film dates me, but The Other Zoey name-checks several romantic comedies and tropes, and even shows someone weeping over 1999’s Notting Hill. Yet no one here notices how, just like Sleeping’s lonely transit clerk, The Other Zoey’s protagonist keeps up the girlfriend ruse, then feels conflicted when another guy enters the picture.
Zoey (Josephine Langford, After Everything) at first doesn’t believe in romantic love, calling it a product of capitalism. She’s a tech-savvy college student pitching a dating app that pairs people based on compatibility.
Algorithms aside, Zoey thinks she’s found a potential match at a campus seminar when a mysterious guy spouts the same anti-romantic sentiment, but he leaves before she can introduce herself. Later, while working at a bookstore, Zoey looks down her nose at Zach (Drew Starkey, Outer Banks), a campus athlete, when he orders a book about a video game.
Zach accidentally leaves his credit card behind, so Zoey chases after him, distracting him enough that a motorist hits him. While Zoey talks to 911, Zach regains consciousness, hears her name, and thinks she’s the other Zoey, the woman he’s been dating for weeks.
Zoey feels awkward, but focused on getting him to the hospital, she doesn’t come clean. The doctor says Zach has a concussion and should avoid any big shocks to ease into recovering his memory. The doctor also advises no screen time, preventing Zach from seeing texts from his real girlfriend (Maggie Thurmon), who is out of town.
Meanwhile, Zach’s parents presume she’s girlfriend Zoey, as does Zach’s cousin Miles (Archie Renaux, Shadow and Bone), who turns out to be the guy from the seminar. When Zach’s parents invite her to join them and Miles for a skiing trip they’ve planned over the long weekend, how can she say no?
Easily.
Directed by Sara Zandieh (Good Girls), The Other Zoey has what late film critic Roger Ebert called the Idiot Plot—a plot where nobody does the obvious or intelligent thing because that would end the movie. The Other Zoey keeps Zoey from fessing up by having someone often interrupt her conversation, and by having her friend Elle (Mallori Johnson, Kindred) encourage her to live a little by living a lie.
“You’re going skiing with a guy who has amnesia, and you’re pretending to be someone else,” Elle says, summarizing the plot for anyone who’s missed it. Elle also reminds Zoey not to “break Zach’s brain” whenever Zoey says she feels dishonest, which is supposed to make Zoey more likable. In While You Were Sleeping, the protagonist was so lonely and depressed, she kept up the facade in part because she liked being part of a loving family. Pretending to be one guy’s girlfriend so you have a shot at the other guy doesn’t have the same ring to it.
That other film also had cute chemistry between Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman. Here, there’s little spark between any of the leads. Starkey has a few nice moments where Zach shows he’s more than Zoey presumed, but the script picks up and drops ideas throughout, sapping the dramatic momentum. Screenwriter Matthew Tabak (Manson’s Lost Girls) also supplies some clunky dialogue, such as when creative writing student Elle says every great love story starts with a love triangle, then cites Lolita as an example.
The Other Zoey also is disheartening in wasting Andie MacDowell and Heather Graham, both veterans of romantic comedies and better movies, as Zach’s and the protagonist’s mothers, respectively. (Forgive me for dating myself again.) Graham at least delivers some lines of depth and reason about what makes a relationship successful—advice that her onscreen daughter doesn’t heed right away because the film needs for her to wallow with a gallon of ice cream, then run around for the climax in her pajamas.
Talk about a cliché.
