With a great cast and a few hilarious cameos, They Came Together is a romantic comedy that is a spoof on all romantic comedies. Think everything from the outfit montage to the staple meet-up on New Year’s Eve.
There is a structure to most romantic comedies. Girl meets guy in some sort of meet-cute, they begin to date, an ex or some obstacle gets in their way, and in the end, they walk off into the sunset together. It’s light, it’s fun, and you know what you’re getting into.
They Came Together is the story of Joel and Molly being told by Joel and Molly to some friends over dinner. After meeting at a friend’s party and disliking each other, they begin dating. She runs a candy store and he works for a conglomerate trying to close down independent candy stores. They fight, they make up, they date other people, and they kind of end up together in the end.
This movie is a romantic comedy that is a spoof on all romantic comedies. It plays out every cliché moment in hilarious detail and there are far too many to list. From a perfectly coiffed naked girl getting out of bed and stretching with the sheet still attached to her chest (so that she doesn’t expose herself) to the staple “guy in the shower” scene to a klutzy woman falling down the stairs (getting up with a laugh) to the “trying on clothes” montage, every hilarious stereotyped moment is touched on.
Both Joel and Molly have a token best friend who is a person of color, there is a “clever rival male employee” at Joel’s work who has an earring and talks down to him, and Joel’s younger brother both needs life advice (as they go running through a park) and shows up to help Joel when he needs it.
There are many moments similar to your favorite rom-coms (think When Harry Met Sally, The Wedding Singer, and Jerry McGuire) that play as very funny and very reminiscent to every staple that you’ve seen before. My favorite moments were when Joel’s token friends were on the basketball court playing the standard rom-com game of pick-up while his friends gave him advice and they said, “Basketball” and moved the ball around while not actually playing the game.
While I really enjoyed most of the movie, there were some majorly cringe moments that felt like they didn’t fit and actually detracted from it. There is a scene between Joel and his grandma that gets oddly romantic, a few moments where people repeat the same phrases seven or eight times (when three times would have been funny), and some language that could have been clever in another movie, but really didn’t work in what projected itself as a mostly sweet rom-com.
Both Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler are fun to watch and there are a few excellent cameos as well. Overall, They Came Together is a very funny movie with a few hiccups, but at only 83 minutes, it will give you the laughs you’re looking for.
Runtime: 83 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Available: Free on Prime Video and Tubi, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
There is a structure to most romantic comedies. Girl meets guy in some sort of meet-cute, they begin to date, an ex or some obstacle gets in their way, and in the end, they walk off into the sunset together. It’s light, it’s fun, and you know what you’re getting into.
