The Other Zoey

Zoey Miller (Josephine Langford) doesn't believe in romantic love and is working on her version of a dating app. She has a meet-cute with Zach MacLaren (Drew Starkey) and the rom-com tropes continue. He gets hit by a car and in a semi-conscious state, he assumes Zoey to be his girlfriend. In reality, he has a new girlfriend in aggressive soccer player Zoey. Zoey Miller is about to tell his parents when his cousin Miles Maclaren (Archie Renaux) shows up.

The first part reminds me a little of While You Were Sleeping. It's got a lot of different rom-coms being mixed together. I'm willing to go with this unusual premise until the family dinner. I don't understand her initial plan. It makes no sense. She wants to sweep Miles off his feet so that he would steal his brain-injured cousin's sweet girlfriend. That's a stupid plan. Even if it works, you've got a guy willing to steal a girlfriend from his brain-injured cousin. There is an easy writing fix. Tell everybody except Zach right from the start. Nobody wants to cause him more trauma so everybody keeps it a secret from him. That would make sense. This does not.

A weak script and a bum's rush ending, it deserved to have an ending that went beyond Jam Fest. I liked the leads Langford and Starkey, but there was too much time spent on roommate Elle and her love interest Diego and too little time on Zoey's love interest Zach. Amnesia is a formulaic plot and love apps are so overused in rom-coms.

Andie MacDowell is a acting veteran, good in anything she's in. The rest of the cast was ok. Due to the strike we haven't heard from the leads or the writer and the director. Why didn't they interview cast and crew right after the shooting, so they had something for previews and to generate interest in the movie? If Netflix was looking for filler content, this was filler.

This is just another film that brings absolutely nothing new in terms of ideas. It features the usual cliché of a naive young girl who lies for far too long, embarasses herself, loses her friend for a short period of time and runs back to mommy. Eventually, she decides is time put on her big girl pants and face the world, which she does. And, lo and behold, like winning the lottery with a scratched-up ticket, she stumbles into the happy ending she most definitely doesn't deserve!

On a positive note, I do like seeing new/fresh/young actors with potential on screen, so at least it has that going for it.

I had a fun time with this one. As a fan of While You Were Sleeping (starring Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman), when I heard about The Other Zoey, I was like do we need another movie like this?

Apparently, yes we do.

I like the direction this one takes with the amnesia character assuming Zoey (the main character) is his girlfriend and then her being in a "love triangle" of sorts with his cousin. My main complaint is the pacing. I think it's very fast. It could be because I'm not used to a movie only being 90 minutes (when did everything get so long). I wish some of the bigger moments were slowed down a bit more.

But overall, the acting was fairly good and it held my attention. It's nice watching something new compared to something I've seen a ton.

It's predictable, something to watch when you don't want to think too much. I don't watch a lot of romantic comedies, but for some reason this one caught my attention and I even laughed at some scenes.

Just don't go in expecting too much. I actually think that some scenes are performed robotically on purpose, as some kind of "creative intent" or some other lie they're telling this days. But the images are generally beautiful and I liked how the movie looks.

It's so bad, but I couldn't stop watching it.

6/10 - it's not a movie anyone must watch. Go for it if there's nothing else and you want something light.