Movie Review: “Worth the Wait?” Worth tracking down

What’s not to like about “Worth the Wait?”

A series of interconnected love stories that fit together well enough, a blend of the romantic, the cute and the sad, there’s no heavy lifting in any of this. It’s never laugh-out-loud funny or all that surprising. But it plays.

A movie star is keenly aware of her rep as a diva actress whom “men leave” is forced to work with a director she has “history” with.

A teenager tries to hang onto her first love in the face of open disapproval from the stern uncle who raises her.

A young couple races to the hospital in that uncle’s ride share — mother-in-law in-tow — for the birth of their child.

A Sino-Malaysian businessman who needs to get home to his stern dad/boss is trapped in the Kia cab with them, because it’s a “ride share.”

Then an emergency room doctor catches the businessman’s eye, setting up one a magical day and night-long “date.”

It’s also worth adding that “Worth the Wait” showcases Seattle at its most photogenic and Kuala Lumpur as a bucket list visit.

The collection of bittersweet romances stars that “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” pixie Lana Condor. She’s Seattle emergency room doc Leah, half swept-off-her-feet by handsome Kai (Ross Butler), who has to admit he “almost threw up” at the childbirth that almost took place in that Kia.

“So I’m a lot tougher and stronger than you,” she teases him. He quips “I’m 100% OK with that!”

She’s leery of relationships — long distance ones especially. But here they go.

That’s the theme of the movie. “Will it be worth it if things don’t work out?”

That young pregnant couple (Karena Ka-Yan Lam and Osric Chou)? They lose the baby. Can their relationship recover? “Will it be worth” all the heartache” to “try again?”

Ali Fumiko Whitney plays Riley, who loves social media prankster Blake (Ricky He). But prom and graduation are coming up. They’ve been seeing each other for a year and she’s never dared tell grumpy ride-share driver Uncle Curtis (Sung Kang of the “Fast and Furious” franchise).

That’s nothing. Kai starts a long-distance romance with Leah without telling her that the real reason he’s sticking with this mergers and acquisitions gig in Malaysia is that he’s scared to disappoint his boss, his bullying firm-founder dad.

Action star Amanda Yan (Elodie Yung, Elektra on TV’s “Daredevil,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”) is shooting a new thriller in Seattle. But her director has fled, and she’s not aware her ex (Andrew Koji of “Bullet Train” and “Gangs of London”) has taken the gig until he shows up at a press conference.

Characters have secrets and issues and connections which are sometimes familial, sometimes set up in support groups and sometimes underexplained.

The comedy isn’t of the side-splitting variety, with dopey prankster Blake taking tumbles (“Not my first roof!”) and blundering into a “Let’s secretly set up your uncle with a ride-share blind date.” scheme.

But every poignant scene works. The couplings and the dilemmas they face are believable and plausible. Even the people behaving like jerks have their reasons.

Light romances and rom-coms have proven so difficult to pull off in recent years that whenever one comes along that works well enough, you can’t help but whisper “Hallelujah,” even if you can’t quite justify shouting it.

Rating: PG

CastL Lana Condor, Ross Butler, Elodie Yung, Karena Ka-Yan Lam, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Ricky He, Osric Chou and Sung Kang

Credits: Directed by Tom Shu-Yu Lin, scripted by Maggie Hartmans. A Tubi Original (on Tubi).

Running time: 1:42

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine
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