The Lovebirds: Awkward and self aware, falls short of the hype

The Lovebirds is very awkward and self aware. Regardless, it fell short of the hype.

For months, the trailer for The Lovebirds ran in theaters and on television. It grabs your attention right away with its casting and Foreigner’s “I want to know what love is” playing in the background.

The tone starts to shift when a stranger hops into the car and runs a man over. Then the music changes and we see the couple, portrayed by Issa Rae (Insecure) and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), ending up in several hilarious situations.

No matter the audience that I watched the trailer with, whether it was before an action movie, a romantic movie, or another comedy, they were all laughing. Every single time without fail the trailer ends and people are still laughing before murmuring amongst themselves. I imagine they were making plans to see the movie when it came out.

The Lovebirds was due to arrive in theaters in April, and after a great marketing campaign it likely would have done well at the box office. However, COVID had other plans and theaters were shut down.

We watched other movies move from theater to home viewing options and as the landscape started to shift, the stars of The Lovebirds announced that their movie would be coming to Netflix. We’d get to see the movie after all! The hype may have died down a bit, but people were still interested.

How did The Lovebirds fall short of the hype?

The couple

Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani both have their strengths individually. In fact, both have somewhat awkward presences that work well around less awkward characters. However, the two together with each radiating awkward energy created a lot of difficult-to-watch scenes.

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On top of this I had a hard time seeing them as a couple. They are at odds for a large portion of the film and you start to question how they’ve been in a relationship for as long as they apparently (the movie tells you four years have passed since their first date in the opening scenes) have.

They seem to know very little about each other and have very little in common. The film could have used more time showing them in harmony early on.

Later in the movie other people mention how weird the pair are which shows that the film does have some self awareness but it’s not enough to make up for their lack of chemistry. They have great moments where they are hilarious together but they’re sandwiched between a lot of awkward ones.

It makes for an uneven showing for both actors and makes me glad that both are already successful and have work lined up because this movie would not have been a springboard for either of them.

The decision making

Throughout the film the pair make a lot of bad decisions. I understand that this is how films of this nature work but I didn’t think they did a great job of explaining the logic behind their moves. The pair is supposed to be smart based on the fields they work in but the moves they make throughout the movie make them appear to be idiots.

In a film that is driven by the leads making bad decisions you have to sell me on why these people are making these decisions. The diner scene after they first flee the murder seems to try to serve this purpose but for me personally it doesn’t do the job.

Much like the awkwardness of the couple, their decision making is also called out in the film, and it’s a funny scene but it doesn’t land as hard as I would have wanted it to.

The positive

I don’t want to call The Lovebirds a complete failure because it did make me laugh throughout. Each character had some great moments and there were some great moments from guests as well. They didn’t outweigh the negatives but there are enough there to make the film an enjoyable experience.

It’s possible that I took the movie too seriously or that my expectations were too high. There are many hilarious moments but as a whole The Lovebirds just doesn’t come together as well as it could have.

It’s probably a good thing that they were able to sell it to Netflix because this feels like the type of movie that would have a big second weekend drop-off at the box office. I don’t think it would thrive on word of mouth.

This is not an event movie, but is one that is safe for a movie night if you just want to laugh at something and move on from it afterwards.

The Lovebirds is currently streaming and in the top 5 on Netflix.