I Don’t Understand You

Grade: C-

I Don’t Understand You gets its title because of the multiple references to the language barrier. Our two main characters spend most of the movie in Italy. We know the real deal because we get subtitles, but the characters don’t know what’s being said, and repeatedly misunderstand everything. The name is also appropriate because the film possesses an egregious tone barrier that gets worse and worse.

I am not going to be as protective of plot points as I usually am. I may reveal more than some wish I would, but…come on. This is a movie that will and should be forgotten about soon. Not exactly Fort Knox. A film has to earn my secrecy. We meet Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells), happily married to each other for almost 10 years. They have been trying to adopt a baby, and after some setbacks, they are finally close to closing the deal, as a soon-to-be mother has chosen them to be her future baby boy’s dads. She is Candace, played by Amanda Seyfried – a talented Oscar nominated actress who is wasted here. Most of her screen time is via FaceTime calls with Dom and Cole.

The two men fly across the pond, as a combination babymoon/anniversary vacation. Everything that’s happened thus far is perfectly charming, and would have been enough to sustain an acceptable and satisfying movie. What happens next sours the experience, and the whole thing goes south. On their way to a nice and very remote dinner, their rental car gets stuck on a dirt driveway in the woods. It’s pouring rain, Rocky Horror style. When Dom gets out to inspect, the tire sprays him all over with mud, then he takes a walk until he gets cell reception. When he comes back, wet but relatively clean, there’s a line of dialogue about how walking for half an hour in the rain can really rinse you off – explaining away why he’s not as dirty as earlier.

When they arrive at dinner, they accidentally kill somebody, which is the first domino. My objection with the film isn’t so much about WHAT happens, but their reaction and consequences, or lack thereof, to what happens. They are completely unfazed, get away with everything, and the viewer is somehow supposed to be ok with all of it (not to mention still being on board with them becoming dads). Whatever sweetness was building in the appealing first part is completely undercut. It’s a shame, because the two leads work well together. Kroll, a straight man, convincingly plays gay. Rannells is appropriately dramatic and theatrical, as you’d expect from this Broadway veteran (he was the original Elder Price in The Book of Mormon).

I know how I would have ended I Don’t Understand You. It would have involved more accountability, and the guilty parties would have taken their medicine. It would have been more in line with a film from 1998 that I really like, and covers similar territory. Very Bad Things. Check it out if you’d never heard of it. In so many ways, I didn’t understand I Don’t Understand You.

Grade: C-