
Netflix is heavily-invested in Josephine Langford, Inc. The latest unutterably gorgeous Australian faux blonde willing and able to sling a perfect North American accent put out a whole series of “After” romances on the dominant streaming service, each of them more limp and lame than the one that came before it.
Amazon Prime? They didn’t get as much “content” out of her as Netflix. But “The Other Zoey,” a rom-com of hers that they picked up, is measurably better than anything with “After” in the title –“measurably” if not entirely “markedly” better.
Zoey is a college coder and general smarty-pants with grad-school-at-MIT dreams. Anything to get her out of a school with dorks who read their reports on The Story of Valentine’s Day in class.
Salty Zoey calls “Bull—t” on such malarkey, labeling the mythic “holiday” of love a “capitalist invention,” among other crimes. But she has this “compatibility” app she’s working on. Wanna “GoFundMe?”
Her roomie and bestie Elle (Mallori Johnson) isn’t quite as cynical. But then, she’s a poet. And fittingly enough, she’s there the day Queens University campus hunk Zach (Drew Starkey) bonks our heroine in the head with a soccer ball. The “star player” on the team has ball-control issues.
Zoey finds him attractive, just not as “compatible” and alluring as the “nerd hunk” (Archie Renaux) who asks the right questions at a brainiac lecture they both attend. But gorgeous Zoey can’t flag him down or get his attention, which makes us wonder if he’s vision-impaired.
As fate would have it, it’s Zach she meets again and accidentally insults at the bookstore where she works. She doubles-down on that by causing an accident which lands him in the hospital with a concussion. He’s confused enough to call her his “Zoey,” lying there concussed, and guilts her into coming with him to the hospital.
Try not to have the promising thought that he’s faking that and all the chicanery that might entail. That would be…different.
But Zach actually has a girlfriend named Zoey. She’s off on spring break in the Bahamas. He’s experiencing memory loss and a doctor’s orders “no screens.” Our Zoey is ordered not to “stress” him.
She plays along, even when his parents (Andie MacDowell and Patrick Fabian) show up, even when she’s invited to dinner, then a family “ski trip” (with a recovering CONCUSSED son).
Wouldn’t you know it? Cousin “Miles,” the tech-nerd-hunk, is coming along, too.
I guess Zoey won’t be telling anybody who she really is and what’s actually happening, even in the hot tub. And Zach doesn’t remember enough to catch on/contradict her.
One can appreciate the efforts to upend the “grand gesture” and “meet cute” “love triangle” rom-com conventions that screenwriter Matthew Tabak and director Sara Zandieh attempt here.
But basically this script just plays lip service to twisting those cliches. The picture is so burdened with them that any sparks Langford might set off with first this guy and then the other are lost in the Black Best Friend who should be Your Conscience convention, the obnoxious kid-sister (Olive Abercrombie), Zoey faking being “The Other Zoey” (who is a soccer star herself) by stumbling through snowboarding and the like.
The ethical, intellectual and sexual issues with her behavior are only half-explained by casting Heather Graham as Zoey’s mom.
There are a few smirks here and there, but only a single actual laugh emerges from the PG-save-for-a-little-cussing script.
“They’re poly” is how someone describes someone else’s lack of romantic fidelity. “What’s ‘poly'” the precocious 10 year-old wants to know?
“It’s math, honey” Mom Andie Mac instantly snaps, ending that line of inquiry.
The film’s “chemistry” is manufactured, but engaging enough. Langford has settled on a hair style and accent that work and a vocal tone — a Lake Bell/Lauren Bacall growl — that serves her well.
But with all these films in the can, it’s time to start exercising a little clout. This script was saveable. An emerging “star” of streaming romances and rom-coms should be able to tell what works and what doesn’t by now, and make her opinions matter until there’s a rewrite/change-in-director or whatever that would help this pay off and satisfy more than “The Other Zoey” can manage.
Rating: PG-13, profanity
Cast: Joesphin Langford, Drew Starkey, Archie Renaux, Mallori Johnson, with Andie MacDowell and Heather Graham.
Credits: Directed by Sara Zandieh, scripted by Matthew Tabak. An Amazon Prime release.
Running time: 1:33


I Think Josephine Langford would be great choice as Jean Grey In MCU