‘What Comes Around’ Movie Review: Lifetime-y Drama Is Well-Acted But Loses Nerve
Photo from IFC
From Jeremy Kibler
Online relationships have tonally run the gamut in film, from the warm and cutesy (You’ve Got Mail) to the inappropriate and vengeful (Hard Candy) to the gut-wrenching (Trust). Formerly titled Roost when premiering at TIFF 2022, What Comes Around is more of a sudsy drama that feels like a Lifetime Original Movie, but it offers stronger performances than most. Written by Scott Organ, adapted from his play “The Thing With Feathers” and directed by Amy Redford (you know whose daughter), the film is provocative but becomes less interested in exploring the ethical nature of an unlikely long-distance relationship between a high school girl and a man twelve years her senior.
Ever since she met him on a message board, doe-eyed 16-year-old Anna (Grace Van Dien) spends her nights texting and FaceTiming with Eric (Kyle Gallner), who might be “in college” but is actually 28. They talk poetry and read Emily Dickinson together, but their relationship is getting serious. Meanwhile, Anna’s mother Beth (Summer Phoenix), a real estate agent, is engaged to her cop boyfriend Tim (Jesse Garcia). For Anna’s 17th birthday, Eric ends up surprising her by driving 900 miles and showing up in person at her door. She’s a little too surprised, taken aback but lets him in eventually. Once it comes out that Anna is dating an older man, Beth is reasonably concerned and then freaks out when her daughter invites Eric (if that’s even his real name) over to their house again. Is Eric actually interested in Anna, or is something else going on?
As the opening credits are presented like iMessages, What Comes Around is definitely a film made for these times when our screen consumption is the new normal for communication. As Anna and Eric get closer once meeting in the flesh, the film doesn’t have too many fresh insights regarding May-December relationships made online. Instead, the chickens come home to roost (a nod to the film’s ex-title), having the film hinge on a sympathy-shifting reveal that certainly drums up interest but just shows a past cycle of intimacy in repeat. It’s contrived by design, but really to what end?
Redford’s direction is sensitive and straightforward, allowing the performances to do most of the work. Grace Van Dien (Casper’s daughter) and Summer Phoenix (River and Joaquin’s sister) are both fascinating to watch, their emotions always ringing true and coming through where a mere look can speak volumes. They create a very close relationship on screen as Anna and Beth that one wouldn’t mind just watching a mother-daughter drama with them. Of course, like he does, Kyle Gallner walks that fine line between charming and possibly threatening with a fair amount of humanity. In playing “Eric,” he’s dynamic without ever just hitting one-note.
What Comes Around does achieve moments of tension without ever exploding into melodrama. To give credit, it is far more understated than the trashy “…from Hell” thriller, à la The Crush, many might be expecting from the onset. But once that other shoe drops, the film peters out and doesn’t really have anywhere else to go besides an inevitable fallout between a mother and daughter. A little ambiguity is fine and even encouraged for a film’s ending, but there’s not much more to think about here except, “Okay, where do we go from here?”
What Comes Around hits select theaters on August 4, 2023.
Rating: 2.5/5
