The story follows two best friends Debbie (Reese Witherspoon) and Peter (Ashton Kutcher), who met 20 years ago on a "memorable" first date, it means, a one-night stand. And for some reason things don't work out between them, and for twenty years even from a distance they maintain their friendship and share their lives with each other, this would be wonderful if the two lived in the same city, but they live miles apart from each other, and yet they still find time to talk to each other every day, there is someone out there who is too committed to this friendship.
This is the premise of In Your place or Mine, a film that has come to destroy once and for all any belief that between a man and a woman there can really be such a close friendship with no other interest.
The film tells the story of Debbie, a single mother who works at a school while working hard to care for or smother her son Jack (Wesley Kimmel), who has a series of problems that are increased and aggravated by her overprotection of Peter, a man who is successful at his job but a failure in his personal life and relationships.
Not that women don't want to take Peter seriously, what they definitely should do, the proof of this is that we see at the very beginning of the movie the girlfriend of the moment charging him, about where the relationship is going, which I found a little exaggerated, come on, with six months of dating the woman is charging the guy, as if they were already together for six years, questioning where the relationship is going, and when he says they are basically letting it happen she gets angry and leaves, which is cat you expected what? A marriage proposal with fuck six months, or am I just too slow, or is this new generation going too fast?
During the movie we find out that Peter has been madly in love with Debbie for twenty years, and since she told him that the two of them didn't work together, he simply decided not to say anything and to idealize this relationship in his head for twenty years, like a man spends twenty years idealizing a woman in his head, maintaining a friendship with this same woman, I don't know if this is healthy behavior.
Then this same man crosses his father, to take care of the child of this same woman and lends his house so that she can take the course she so desires, and he clearly does this out of love, god how you keep doing things because you like someone and don't tell them how you feel, I don't understand this masochistic vibe.
How could she, if she doesn't see that her own son has problems, and is always unhappy, and that she smothers him all the time, well, I think that empathy is not Debbie's strong suit.
Unlike Peter, who goes to pick the boy up from school as soon as he arrives and soon realizes that something is wrong with him, so he tries to approach him and is shocked to find that Debbie doesn't tell him everything, how did he do not know this? Everyone has his secrets, by the way, who remembers to tell everything every time?
Well, the fact is that little by little, Peter gets closer to the boy and makes him open up to him, and so he starts to help him.
NOTE TO the little songs in the middle of the cutscenes, which play completely out of nowhere and are totally unnecessary, are annoying.
Meanwhile, as soon as Debbie arrives in New York, she makes friends with one of Peter's ex-girlfriends, who shows up at her apartment out of nowhere, Well, this girl is a bit obsessed and "appears" out of nowhere again on Debbie's course and convinces her going for lunch with her, the two go to a super fancy bar and there they meet coincidentally, one of those that only happen in a movie, a very famous editor of whom Debbie is a fan and who, coincidentally, is talking to a professor on her course.
The friend then encourages Debbie to go talk to the man and the two end up having a call and exchange phones, some time later, Debbie finds out from Peter's ex that he has a book written and, encouraged by her, ends up opening and reading the manuscript, at that moment I began to suspect that what this friend really wanted was to end the friendship between Peter and Debbie, but then I concluded that she is just clueless.
As Debbie fares worse, not satisfied with reading the book without telling Peter, she even arranges a meeting with the handsome editor and gives him the manuscript to read, intending to get it published.
The only thing that makes sense about Debbie is that she is torn between a course that will give her some security in her profession and one that she really enjoys. How many of us are not divided like this and often end up choosing, due to lack of options, what will pay the bills instead of what will make us happy.
Other than that, the film is a collection of absurdities that require you not only to suspend your disbelief, but also your intelligence to believe that some absurd situations in this film can actually happen, as, for example, when Debbie meets the handsome editor in a restaurant chic if that was the reality this guy wouldn't even look at Debbie he could be nice and say hello but never pay attention we all know that really famous, successful, high society guys only look at women who are at least well-dressed, with makeup and high heels, and never for ordinary women.
It is the odd neighbor who never leaves Debbie's yard, who what in the 21st century, what still having young children, would trust a stranger walking around to your yard day and night, I don't think so anyone, the true-crime documentaries are out there and the policing news to remind us every day that this is not a good idea for anyone, so in what world would a paranoid and overprotective mother allow this kind of nonsense in fact, a mother, living alone with her child, would have already called the police for this citizen.
And when Debbie brings a stranger over to Peter's house unannounced and even has sex with the guy in front of on camera, and Peter, gets a notification and sees this, just calls his and Debbie's friend and asks her to stay keep an eye on the boy while he goes out drinking, if that happened in reality, any friend, man or woman, not out of jealousy, but out of sheer common sense, would call Debbie right away, after all, he lent her the house to stay and not to she takes strangers there because this is at least a risky behavior both for her and for him, who will have to go home later and to worsen the level of absurdity, when in the morning she goes out and still leaves the guy alone in the Peter's house, thank goodness that Peter did not see this.
The cluelessness of Debbie has no limits and as a form of gratitude for everything that Peter is doing, she fills the guy's house with plants and if the guy dislikes plants? And if he did not know how to take care of plants? In the sequence, we see her putting flowers and other decorative objects in the guy's house, the movie wants us to think that she is improving the environment and making us this wow, this guy needs this woman in his life, of course, he does understand her son better than her, and she knows how to take care and beautify a home, what a perfect couple.
No man, Peter is just a silly guy who had no attitude in the past and now is faking a friendship and taking care of the son of a woman just because he prefers to stay in the friend zone than talk about what he feels and see what happens. And Debbie is a brat who comes to the guy's house changing and messing with everything without even thinking if the person would like those changes in his decor or not, what would be more perfect than this couple, a self-centered and insecure.
The icing on the cake, in my opinion, is Debbie looking for a pair of jeans under a bedside table where you couldn't hide even a bra, and finding a package full of pictures of her and things that represent their friendship, He also finds a game card of the day they were together and concludes with his new friend that Peter loves her all this time, my God, woman, if a guy keeps many pictures of you and things that you gave him, he doesn't love you, he is obsessed with you and at the very least has idealized you for years.
Her new friend says that she has to tell Peter how she feels, as well as how she feels, she is his friend and point she does not feel anything, and otherwise she would not be sleeping with a guy she just met at Peter's house.
Then she will find the other guy who is already making a thousand proposals for jobs and things to her, which is also strange, he says, "what is going on between us" bro, nothing is going on between you, you have only gone out once and slept together one night, what and stop being emotional.
But when it comes to being emotional, he loses out to Debbie who, out of the blue, has now discovered that she loves Peter. I don't know, I am suspicious of these types of love, in which the person sees that the other is interested in her and is encouraged by friends, discovers that she loves the other.
Then her son, whom Peter let play field hockey after she herself said that he didn't need to tell her everything and that she trusted him, has an accident, and he calls to warn her, which makes Debbie mad and even after her son shows that he is happy with the week he spent with Peter and makes it clear that even if he got hurt he still wants to play field hockey, she simply throws Peter out of her house, my God this woman is a nightmare.
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