Save the Date

Courtesy of IFC Films

Here are my biases in order of importance: Anything that Lizzie Caplan touches I think is golden, I love independent film conventions even if they are clichéd and disorganized, and stories that revolve around relationships starring anti-heroines make me swoon. All right, let's move past that, so we can get into the meat and bones of this romantic dramedy from director Michael Mohan.

 The characters are really well written and their romantic, as well as familial, relationships move the plot forward steadily. Still, there is very little that actually happens onscreen. Sarah (Caplan) finds herself changing, possibly growing up in a way that she didn't previously think was possible, but her life doesn't change much. She has no career ambitions, she's lackadaisical about almost everything, and her relationship with her ex-boyfriend seems to cease from her mind as soon as she walks away from it. What makes this film watchable, even entertaining, is her relationship with her sister Beth (Brie) who gives a performance unlike many I've seen from her previously. (That's mostly because she can play a great breadth of roles, to be fair.)

 This film did well at Sundance, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Since then, no one has heard much about this film, and that's probably because it's hard to describe. Films that have little going on in them are harder to sell, or explain, to friends. The fact that it is now on Netflix will probably make it easier to find, and more people will find something they love in it. It's a simple, nearly whimsical film, which doesn't make it anything worthy of praise, but finding a film that passes the Bechdel Test, let alone has female characters in the lead, is hard to find. I wouldn't pass this up so simply for that, and many reasons.