The funny-tragic rom-com ‘Oh, Hi!’ starts blissful, ends toxic
Logan Lerman, left, and Molly Gordon in the movie “Oh, Hi!”
The high-stakes romantic comedy “Oh, Hi!” is a backhanded compliment to lotharios like Rudolph Valentino, James Bond and “The Wolf of Wall Street’s” Jordan Belfort. At least those frank seducers wanted quickies. Fickle Isaac (Logan Lerman) strings women along pretending to be a sweetheart. Four months into dating Iris (a bubbly Molly Gordon), he whisks the smitten girl on a weekend getaway to a farmhouse in fictional High Falls with quaint Shaker furniture and a closet of erotic accessories. There, at the worst possible time, Isaac blurts he doesn’t want to commit. His kindness is cruel — and Iris wants payback.
The first act is all infatuation with director Sophie Brooks and cinematographer Conor Murphy delighting in scenes of superficial bliss: sunflowers, pretty clouds, Adirondack chairs nestled together just so. The intention is to slap each shot with the Instagram hashtag #couplegoals. Then Brooks shifts into the light thriller she’s teased since the opening notes of heaving, scratchy violins.
Iris and Isaac haven’t noticed any red flags. But there are cautionary pink ones. Iris is visibly insecure about Isaac’s conversations with other women, including the strawberry peddler who coos that he has “soft hands,” and his mother, who dials him up to crack inside jokes. Iris’ smile is too tense; Isaac’s comes too smoothly, even when sharing a memory of catching his father cheating on his mom.
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A pop psychologist would say witnessing his dad’s infidelity triggered Isaac’s fear of commitment. (Brian de Palma experienced nearly the same thing and turned into, well, Brian de Palma.) But Isaac is a literature guy, toting around a paperback of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago’s “Blindness” to underscore that neither one of them sees their mismatch clearly. Isaac just wants the girlfriend experience without the weight of expectations. Iris’ dewy eyes are all expectation.
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The plot finagles a way to tether them to the bedroom until they get closer to being on the same page. (It involves several pairs of handcuffs.) The mechanics of this hostage situation are hard to buy. You have to keep reminding yourself that she’s drunk and impulsive while he, rather nonsensically, holds his feelings inside until the exact moment he should shut up and save himself.
Partners like Isaac have been edging toward a clinical diagnosis: alexithymia, or the inability to describe your emotions. It’s the people around the patient who suffer the symptoms. Iris’ best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan, an always welcome sight) offers a blunter verdict: “Classic softboy,” she laments. “They trick you, they get you — they’re the worst.”
And they’re not new, although they do seem to be mushrooming. Cinema has warned us about variations of this breed of harmless-looking heartbreaker for generations — it was Woody Allen’s entire persona. The female version is Julia Roberts’ “Runaway Bride,” so mealy about her own feelings that she ditches four grooms at the altar. This month, you can also watch the pretty good new psychological horror film “Bury Me When I’m Dead,” which trips over an even higher narrative hurdle by telling its story through the POV of its wishy-washy lead.
Passivity can be as impossible to capture on camera as the moon. Movie scripts, like vexed suitors, struggle to pin down a vaporous lover. Here, Isaac attempts to outrun criticism by sighing, “The issue is that I treated you too well?”
Lerman is the former teen dreamboat of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and the “Percy Jackson” series, and he’s interesting casting. Girls from the ages of 11 to 15 idealize pinups like him who have been packaged as handsome, innocuous and flat. Accordingly, he plays Isaac shallowly so that Iris can fill him in with her own projections. If he gave the character a personality, we’d get distracted wondering whether the couple could work out. I’m noncommittal myself on whether Lerman delivers a serviceable performance or a strong one. But his Isaac excels at spotting what people want and reflecting it back. He’s unnervingly good at faking charm, like a fox that smooth-talks its way out of a trap.
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It’s a bigger issue that the film doesn’t have a handle on Iris’ character. One moment, she’s an empathetic audience stand-in, the next she’s Kathy Bates in “Misery.” Despite those bumps, Gordon, who shares a story credit with Brooks, is a nimble, likable comedian. Capitalizing on her theater-kid energy, she executes a talent-show dance number to capture Isaac’s heart. (Check out her comedy “Theater Camp,” which Gordon co-wrote and co-directed.) “Oh, Hi!” sides more with her than him, which is understandable given the women who made it and its intended rom-com audience. Yet that allegiance puts it uncomfortably close to hissing, “Look what you made me do.”
One smart critique launched by the film (albeit underdeveloped) is that no one wants to confront Iris with the truth. Her mother (Polly Draper) comes with her own baggage, advising her daughter, “Sometimes men don’t know what’s best for them.” Meanwhile, the internet’s you-go-girl optimists placate Iris with flimsy assurances that men always pull away before they commit. As for Max, she suggests killing Isaac, then claims she’s kidding. Is she? Probably. But both she and Iris are so accustomed to disguising their wants with humor that it’s hard for them — and us — to know what they genuinely think.
Max’s own boyfriend, the mellow and supportive Kenny (John Reynolds), may as well be wearing a T-shirt that says, “Not All Bedmates.” Otherwise, the only other mildly memorable role is a prurient neighbor played by David Cross, who is really just there to lend the indie production his star clout.
Pointedly and inevitably, our leads regress into Mars-Venus caricatures — he’s the jerk, she’s the psycho — as Brooks vents her frustration that gender tropes haven’t evolved. And not for lack of trying. For months, Isaac has whipped up homemade scallop dinners, while Iris patiently played it cool. The film’s core question is: How have men and women worked so hard to overcome toxic archetypes and still wound up stuck here?
There’s no satisfying answer to that. Brooks can merely offer this flawed pair more kindness than they grant each other (or themselves). Which makes “Oh, Hi!” a pleasant if perilous date night film. Having spent an enjoyable evening with it myself, I have to admit: I like the movie fine, but I’m not in love.
Attorney: Georgia couple faces reduced charges after leaving children home alone
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A Calhoun mother and her boyfriend face child cruelty charges after Calhoun Police say they left her eight and 10-year-old sons home alone while the couple got drove to Duluth to get items out of a storage unit. Photo courtesy of the Calhoun Police Department.
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- Child cruelty
- Calhoun Police
- Home alone
- Storage unit
- Alcoholic beverage
- Nicotine vape
- Georgia Division of Family and Children Services
- Custody
CALHOUN, Ga. — Calhoun Police charged a mother and her boyfriend with child cruelty charges after they say an 8 and 10-year-old were left home alone for nearly 2 hours.
The woman’s attorney says those charges have since been reduced, and claims she ‘committed no crime.’
Watch the police body camera footage of the couple’s arrest below:
The couple, identified as Alexandra Woodward and John McHugh, left at around 9:15 p.m. on April 15th, according to a report from the Calhoun Police Department.
During that time, the report says the boys’ father called his sons, who told them they were home alone.
The father then called police, and officers did a welfare check at the boys’ home.
A Calhoun mother and her boyfriend face child cruelty charges after Calhoun Police say they left her eight and 10-year-old sons home alone while the couple got drove to Duluth to get items out of a storage unit. Photo courtesy of the Calhoun Police Department.
Inside the home, police say they found an open alcoholic beverage container on the dining room table and a nicotine vape on a counter.
The report says these items were “easily accessible” to the boys.
While speaking with Woodward on one of the boys’ cellphone, the report says she told police she had only been gone for twenty minutes, though she also said she was thirty minutes away from the children.
Calhoun Police say it took Woodward an hour and 15 minutes to get back home after they talked on the phone.
A Calhoun mother and her boyfriend face child cruelty charges after Calhoun Police say they left her eight and 10-year-old sons home alone while the couple got drove to Duluth to get items out of a storage unit. Photo courtesy of the Calhoun Police Department.
Later on, at 11:15 p.m., officers called the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), who told police the boys should go with their father so long as he had legal rights to the children.
According to Georgia DCFS, there is no specific age where a child can be left home alone under state law, but the agency does have guidelines.
They recommend children eight years and younger not be left alone. If a child is between nine to twelve, DCFS recommends they only be left alone for less than 2 hours.
Click here to view the PDF file
When asked how they felt about being home alone, one of the boys told police he was nervous due to the potential of a break-in.
The report says the other boy said he was used to being home alone, because it happens often.
The boys’ father took custody of them just after 11:30 p.m., and he told police he would never leave his sons at home by themselves.
The next day, the boys’ father sent an email to Calhoun Police. In it, he wrote:
“My children should not have been left alone at all. They are new to Calhoun and that house. The house is a newly flipped 100+ year old structure. As a residential contractor, I have seen my share of improper electrical wiring and other shortcuts taken during flips that could have resulted in any number of dangers. Also, my children had just been with me for 10 days during spring break; they went back to her house Sunday night. They were going to be with her until Thursday, where they would then have been with me for the next 4 days. There was plenty of time before and after her custody time to make this trip to Duluth. She, unfortunately chose to leave our children at home, alone, at night with nobody else aware of this trip.
I believe my children to be capable of a lot, but they are also extremely forgetful and easily distracted. This too could have taken a simple mistake or accident to a catastrophic level.”
A Calhoun mother and her boyfriend face child cruelty charges after Calhoun Police say they left her eight and 10-year-old sons home alone while the couple got drove to Duluth to get items out of a storage unit. Photo courtesy of the Calhoun Police Department.
Police say Woodward and McHugh arrived home about 30 minutes later.
The couple was originally charged with first degree cruelty to children.
However, Woodward’s attorney says the DA is reducing the charge to reckless conduct.
The attorney, David DeLugas, tells us…
“Alexandra did NOT consciously disregard a substantial and unjustifiable risk that her leaving the children in their own home WILL (would) cause harm or endanger their safety. She is not guilty; she is innocent. It is absurd she has to face two counts (up to 1 year in jail as to each child and up to $1,000 fine as to each).”
Here is the version of events according to the pro bono organization DeLugas works for, ParentsUSA:
Click here to view the PDF file
But what does Georgia law say? It defines cruelty to children as…
….when such person willfully deprives the child of necessary sustenance to the extent that the child’s health or well-being is jeopardized.
That law carries a penalty of between 5 and 20 years.
By comparison, the law in Tennessee is similar: A person is guilty of child cruelty if…
..who knowingly exposes such child to or knowingly fails to protect such child from abuse or neglect resulting in physical injury or imminent danger to the child.
However, in Tennessee, the class of felony goes up if the child in question is 8 years old or younger.
For Reckless Conduct, Georgia law defines it as…
“A person who causes bodily harm to or endangers the bodily safety of another person by consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk.”
Bill Speek, an attorney who is not involved in this case, says the older child’s maturity level could be an important factor in court.
“It’s going to be a subjective standard. It’s going to be whether this 10-year-old was was responsible enough to be at home, you know, with his eight year old brother and care for them.”
However, Speek says Woodward could face more legal trouble if the jury doesn’t find the child responsible enough.
“Most importantly, they’re facing losing their kid. You know, this child could be taken out of the house and given to a foster situation to someone they deem more safe and responsible.”
A new law addressing how long a child can be left home alone was just passed in Georgia, and goes into effect July 1st.
The Reasonable Childhood Independence Bill, which Governor Brian Kemp signed into law last month, gives parents the right to decide when their children are ready to be left alone, unless the parents show an “intentional disregard” of a “serious and imminent risk” that puts their child in obvious danger.
We spoke with Lenore Skenazy, a co-founder for the non-profit organization Let Grow, who is pushing a change in law to keep parents in similar situations from facing prosecution.
“I think we all know real neglect when we see it, and I think that we know that this wasn’t neglect, but somehow the wheels of the government just turned, and suddenly she’s facing these overwhelming charges and and frankly, if you think it’s bad for a mom to not be with her kids for an hour or two, why would you contemplate sending her to jail for five years?”
