‘Oh, Hi!’ Review: What Witchcraft Is This?

It’s been called the battle of the sexes. Jane Ward dubbed it the tragedy of heterosexuality. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. He’s an “asshole,” she’s “crazy,” and never the twain shall meet. Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi! hinges, like many a rom-com before it, on the conflict between a man and a woman seemingly destined to never see eye to eye. Luckily, the film manages to avoid retrograde characterization with its observational, lived-in take on the push-pull of the sexes, namely men who can’t commit and the women who refuse to accept it.

Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) are headed to a remote cabin for a weekend getaway. Having been dating for a few months, the two seem crazy about each other: Whether giggling over a mishap with a local strawberry seller, enjoying a little afternoon cunnilingus, or sharing a romantic dinner of scallops with wine, things couldn’t seem more perfect.

That evening, after discovering some bondage gear in the hall closet of their rental, the lovebirds engage in some light kink play, with Iris affixing Isaac to the bed with cuffs and chains. In the post-coital glow, he admits that he’s not actually looking for a long-term relationship, to which Iris responds with understandable befuddlement. She refuses to unlock him, vowing to let him go if she can’t convince him to love her after 12 hours. But when Isaac threatens to take legal action, Iris calls in her best friend, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Max’s boyfriend, Kenny (John Reynolds), to help resolve things, only to make matters worse.

Brooks collaborated on the script for Oh, Hi! with Gordon, who brings easy charm and relatability to Iris, even as her actions grow increasingly irrational. Though Oh, Hi! never really swerves into the darker territory of erotic thriller that’s teased by its scenario, it feels as if Brooks and Gordon are trying to unpack decades of programming from movies and television telling girls they’re “too much” for how they react to the games played by men.

Lerman gamely plays against his internet-boyfriend, sweetie-pie image as a character who can make a woman feel like the center of the world one minute and completely freeze her out the next. Oh, Hi!’s strongest moments come when Iris and Isaac are simply talking—negotiating the gap between expectation and reality and how these needs can misalign, not solely for those of different genders but any individuals with their own complexities and desires.

Oh, Hi! suffers mightily when it introduces Viswanathan and Reynolds, who are as likeable as Gordon and Lerman as performers but whose characters work to fold some leaden contrivances into the mix. After its opening act, the film gets silly fast, with a frankly stupid witchcraft subplot and narrative turns that are telegraphed with audience-insulting obviousness.

Oh, Hi! is constantly on the verge of falling into age-old gendered stereotypes and might have been stronger had it stayed in the bedroom with its two most interesting characters. Still, it makes a compelling enough case that even as open communication, gender norms, and the shape of relationships change, mismatched lovers and their follies will always remain the same.