Trouble is, we know the film’s stars are capable of so much more. Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher are, of course, great-looking and charismatic, and both have perfectly snappy comic timing after all these years. So it’s frustrating watching them try to take this safe, bland material and make it sing.
Witherspoon and Kutcher play Debbie and Peter, who hooked up once 20 years ago and have been best friends ever since. We know they’re best friends because they keep telling us they’re best friends, but their exchanges never convey the comfort or substance of such a crucial, two-decade bond. Even though they live across the country from each other, they still talk every day in some form, and while their conversations are breezy, they lack a believable spark.
McKenna quickly establishes that they’re opposites through the use of familiar genre tropes. Split screens show that Debbie lives in a cluttered and colorful Los Angeles Craftsman while Peter lives in a sleek and spacious Brooklyn condo overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. (The backgrounds are extremely green-screeny.) She’s a perky and uptight single mom; he’s a sardonic charmer with commitment issues. She walks through a quiet, leafy neighborhood while he walks through the bustling city streets. They’re so different! Could they possibly end up together?
McKenna’s script keeps them physically apart for the vast majority of the movie, though, as a series of contrivances forces them to swap homes for a week. Debbie moves into Peter’s place while finishing some professional training in Manhattan; meanwhile, Peter agrees to live in Debbie’s home to take care of her sweet and shy 13-year-old son, Jack (Wesley Kimmel). He arrives to a litany of anxious Post-It notes all over everything, and she can’t figure out how to get his high-tech entertainment system to stop playing songs by Peter’s favorite band, The Cars. It’s wacky! (Seriously, name a Cars song, and it’s in this movie, including “Drive” while Peter is … driving.)