TMS Movie Review: Maybe I Do
(Vertical Entertainment)
Michael Jacobs’ feature film debut, Maybe I Do, is shot exactly like a traditional sitcom from the 1980s or 1990s. This is no surprise, since Jacobs is most famous for co-creating the family classics “Charles in Charge” (1984-1990), “My Two Dads” (1987-1990), “Dinosaurs” (1991-94) and “Boy Meets World” (1993-2000). Maybe I Do just feels like an episode with three cameras on a soundstage with an audience during the prime of network TV. The only problem here is, that we’re watching a movie made on digital film in 2022. We don’t have a live audience or laugh-track to lazily make up the cheap jokes. It’s shot on location, so we don’t need those quick, stationary exterior shots of the house or restaurant before spending the next 10-15 minutes in a single room. There are also constant reminders Jacobs’ background is in family entertainment, so branching out into an adult centered romcom here often feels clunky because he’s using cues and gags usually found on kid-friendly sitcoms.
In Maybe I Do, we have four A-list vets, Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and William H. Macy. Grace (Keaton) and Sam (Macy) meet at a movie theater and instantly hit it off, though don’t immediately follow-up the impromptu date. Howard (Gere) and Monica (Sarandon) are winding down an affair after the former decides he should make a bigger effort on his marriage. It’s quickly revealed Grace is Howard’s wife, and Monica is married to Sam. How do they figure this out? The first pair are the parents of Michelle (Emma Roberts), her boyfriend Alan (Luke Bracey) is the son of Sam and Monica, and all of this is while the younger couple are in the middle of their own relationship crisis.
(Vertical Entertainment)
Another issue with Maybe I Do is the ages of all the actors. Roberts and Bracey are in their 30s, but playing characters dealing with problems most couples have in their 20s. The four big names in the cast are clearly all the old enough to be grandparents, but they’re playing parents of relatively young people. We also get stale, phoned-in caricatures of the stars’ usual archetypes. Keaton is her token kooky old lady, Gere is grumpy and sardonic, Macy is awkward and neurotic, and Sarandon is the cougar. Funnily enough, there’s more chemistry between the actors paired for the affairs than for the spouses; even though we know the latter will stay together by the end. I’ve never completely bought into Roberts as a romcom lead, especially compared to her aunt Julia during her prime. So Emma’s casting as love crazy Michelle, wishing her boyfriend will propose soon, doesn’t feel natural. On top of an uneventful, lazy ending, Maybe I Do is not only the first romcom of 2023, but the first one to skip.