Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I Want You Back’ On Amazon, A Charming Breakup Rom-Com Starring Charlie Day & Jenny Slate

In I Want You Back, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, two sad sacks find solace in one another after being dumped by their respective partners. Jenny Slate, Charlie Day, Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto, and Scott Eastwood star in this romcom written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, the writing pair behind shows like This Is Us, Love, Victor, and How I Met Your Father. This charming breakup comedy sees the dumped duo try to ruin their exes’ new relationships in the hopes of getting back together. 

I WANT YOU BACK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Emma (Jenny Slate) thinks she’s with the love of her life. Personal trainer Noah (Scott Eastwood) is charming and handsome, and they’ve been together for 18 months. When he dumps her over brunch and tells her he thinks she needs to figure out what she’s doing with her life, however, she’s totally caught off guard. Peter (Charlie Day) is similarly blindsided when girlfriend of 6 years Anne (Gina Rodriguez) breaks up with him at her nephew’s birthday party, leaving him in utter shambles. Emma and Peter try their best to keep it together at their respective jobs, but the two wind up meeting in the stairwell at their office complex during a cry session and bond over their shared misery. They do drunk karaoke, go to a screening of Con Air, and agree to call each other whenever they get the urge to call their exes. When the two of them discover that both their exes have moved on to happy relationships, they hatch a plan to try to win them back.

Emma will try to seduce Logan (Manny Jacinto), Anne’s free-spirited new boyfriend, while Peter will befriend Noah and attempt to sabotage his new relationship with charming baker Ginny (Clark Backo). What ensues are some seriously ridiculous shenanigans involving a middle school production of Little Shop of Horrors, some accidental partying with high schoolers (and a very funny surprise cameo), and an awkward almost-threesome. As Peter and Emma grow closer, it becomes clear – even if not to both of them right away – that they might be trying to win the hearts of the wrong people.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I Want You Back might bring to mind flicks like Set It Up, Crazy, Stupid, Love, Sleeping with Other People, and Plus One.

Performance Worth Watching: The Good Place breakout Manny Jacinto has been popping up everywhere these days (hello, Nine Perfect Strangers), and he’s right at home in I Want You Back as a self-serious theater lover putting on a middle school production of Little Shop of Horrors. With bone structure sharp enough to cut and a luxurious mane of hair, he’s the perfect enviable new boyfriend for Anne, but I couldn’t help but wish I was watching him play the lead in his own romcom. There’s something so sexy and effortless about Jacinto’s screen presence, and it seems about time for him to step away from the supporting roles into the spotlight. That said, he is memorable and so very funny in I Want You Back, an essential ingredient to the film’s success.

Memorable Dialogue: There are some genuinely heartwarming and uproarious lines in I Want You Back, but Eastwood’s delivery of “get back on the whores” made me laugh out loud. A perfect example of when the right joke meets the right actor.

Sex and Skin: We overhear some very rowdy sex at Emma’s apartment and later there’s an almost-threesome.

Our Take: There’s a lot to love about I Want You Back; a delightful cast, an often-funny script, a giant heart. It’s pretty predictable, but it’s also more about the journey and falling in friend-love than it is about big, show-stopping romance, and that feels like a welcome shift for this kind of formulaic romcom. Day and Slate have decent enough chemistry, but I’m not sure they get the time needed on screen together for us to truly root for them together as a couple. Despite this, I was pretty invested from the jump, even if it didn’t particularly matter to me whether or not they ended up together. I Want You Back wisely doesn’t push its actors out of their comfort zones in any real way, instead allowing them to lean into type and roll with it. And it works! An ensemble this solid just makes the whole thing fun to watch, and the movie is actually funny, which is rarer than it should be in romantic comedies these days.

If you’re looking for a warm, comfortable romcom that will make you laugh and feel good by the time the credits have rolled, I Want You Back is just the ticket. There might not be all the fireworks you dream of with a big, showy romcom, but who needs fanfare when you’ve got a cast this endearing and a perfectly adequate script? I Want You Back is appropriately timed to Valentine’s Day and will likely please couples and singletons alike, striking a lovely balance of sweet and silly and playing to its performers’ greatest strengths.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I Want You Back might be predictable, but it’s thoroughly charming, a warm and funny romcom better than most we see on streaming these days.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.