What Happens Later

by Philip Price

Photo: Bleecker Street

Director: Meg Ryan 
​Starring: Meg Ryan & David Duchovny  
Rated: R (language, some sexual reference & brief drug use)
Runtime: 1 hour & 43 minutes  

 
Meg Ryan's “What Happens Later” is a movie as much about the relationship at the center of its story as it is the film's relationship with the rom-com genre. Both are in conversation with one another for the majority of the film, but what both are trying to say lands with different levels of success. While actress Meg Ryan, who after being out of the spotlight for several years and not having made a full-fledged romantic comedy since 2008 or so, makes it seem as if she's reclaiming her place atop the genre greats with this effort filmmaker Meg Ryan feels somewhat at odds with this decision.

As “What Happens Later” unfolded I couldn't decide whether or not it was working to upend expectations while using the aesthetic and tone of your standard romcom to comment on the genre or if it was simply trying to hammer home how fraudulent everything in these kinds of movies truly is; highlighting the real conversations people are forced to have about love as they get older and realize they have less to look forward to and more to make up for. In the latter, they kind of obliterate everything we hold dear about the genre in terms of story beats and structure and the choice to play this so whimsically only reinforces the criticism of the genre as opposed to utilizing these staples by way of telling a different, more mature story than these movies usually do. I don't think I can draw a clear line between the film's ambitions and intent because I don't know that Ryan could either. She clearly has an affinity for the sweetness of the genre, but also clearly desires to lend some perspective to it by making a rom-com not about twentysomethings falling in love for the first time, but about sixtysomethings who have been chasing the high their first love gave them ever since it ended. It's a classic "can't have your cake and eat it too" scenario but damn it if Ryan doesn't try to revel in all the best parts of these mutually exclusive alternatives.

In this regard, “What Happens Later” is essentially a "what if" movie meaning it's a theoretical take on what we might do given the opportunity to say everything to that one person we never had the opportunity to say everything we wanted to. The ideal setting, an unlimited amount of time and a set of circumstances that would never actually fall so perfectly into place to provide such an opportunity in order to provide clarity and peace around some of life’s biggest regrets. Cool, that's fine. I dig the pitch especially when considering how Ryan and her crew stage the conversations in these sparse, indeterminate settings where they are guided by the voice making announcements over the PA system in the airport. There is a line of dialogue in the film though that goes, "If we could see our memories in advance would we do anything different?" Now, this feels like a question with an obvious answer, but in the reality of executing course corrections, we would undoubtedly find such an endeavor more challenging than expected with the easier, more familiar route eventually becoming more attractive. The same thing feels like it happened to Ryan's film in that it seemingly wants to rewrite the rules of the rom-com but can't help but fall back into the way of the safer, but still satisfying conclusions of rom-coms of years past.

A final note: I like David Duchovny and find him immensely charming and more than capable with this material, but he still feels miscast for one reason or another. I'm not sure how much the overall film might have changed as a result, but it arguably would have been more interesting to see Ryan and Tom Hanks round out their rom-com trilogy this far down the road, if not improving the execution at least adding more weight to the relationship history that is so much a part of this story. What if?