‘Wishful Thinking’ review: Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman conjure fireworks in a sharp and hilarious high-flying romance

This doesn’t mean that Charlie (Louis Pullman) and Julia (Maya Hawke) don’t love each other anymore. It’s clear from the first minutes Wishful thinkingGraham Parks’ smart and funny directorial debut, is as good as it gets, with the playful exchange of pleasantries of two people who know each other well enough to feel completely comfortable, yet still find each other interesting enough to flirt with.

It’s that despite all the affection – warm, lively, sexy – that flows between them, they can’t seem to stop fighting. Case in point: Within moments of the exchange described above, the couple talked themselves into an all-night cage match of arguing, filled with loaded phrases that made it clear they’d been down this exact road many times before.

If Julia and Charlie were another couple, this would only be a problem for them. in Wishful thinkingA little karmic magic turns it into a problem for everyone. There is perhaps something of an indulgence in the idea that reality itself might be wrapped around how one’s relationship works. But don’t clichés like “happy wife, happy life” suggest that we all understand this feeling?

Unable to get along but unwilling to break up, Charlie, a struggling musician, and Julia, an ambitious but frustrated video game designer, lament that there is no magic solution to their problems. Then, suddenly, there it is. At the insistence of Wu Wu’s friend (Sophie Lachman), they attend a couples therapy seminar hosted by the Tellies, popular TikTok gurus (both played by Kate Berlant) who preach concepts like manifestation and “twin flame.” Asked to empathize with each other and remember what first attracted them (as shown in a beautiful split-screen flashback that brings together her memories of their meet-cute against him), the pair return home feeling happier in sync than they have in ages.

However, it soon becomes clear that it’s not just their mood that fluctuates with the state of their relationship. When they are happy, all their hopes come true. Their plants are thriving. Their careers advance. Even the cryptocurrency market, which Charlie’s more devious friend (Eric Rahel) convinces him to throw in some coins, is booming. As they fight, their fears come true: furniture breaks, work deteriorates, and sea levels rise. Now, their domestic happiness is no longer just a matter of personal fulfillment, but an imperative that has the power to save or destroy the world.

It’s a goofy hypothesis that won’t be done any favors by thinking about the rules too hard. So, Parks wisely isn’t really trying. Instead, he applies it as a light-hearted Charlie Kaufman thought experiment focusing on exactly two people. Julia may worry about how their romance will impact world events (“I’ll deal with climate change and you can have income inequality,” she suggests to Charlie), but even in the end she comes to the conclusion — disgustingly self-absorbed but logically sound in the context of the film — that for the health of Charlie’s mother or the fates of small island nations, “we just have to focus on us.”

Within that experience, at first, there are some pretty big laughs. I’ll transcribe some of the best lines here, but that wouldn’t do justice to the perfectly timed deliveries from Hawke and especially Pullman (not to mention the smaller appearances of Jake Shin as Julia’s overly loyal student Jeff or Amita Rao as her best friend). An extended sequence of Julia and Charlie intentionally enraging each other to test their mystical abilities is the film’s big comedic centerpiece, but my favorite gag involves the life of a beloved Hollywood actor hanging in the balance, based on a bit of mockery from Charlie.

Without losing your sense of humor. Wishful thinking It starts to build deeper feelings too. The strong chemistry between Pullman and Hawke ensures that even at their worst, Charlie and Julia never seem obnoxious. Their punches come from a place of wounded love, not cruelty or contempt, and they’re never so angry that they can’t make each other laugh by trying to “sexy dance.” [their] “Way out of this,” they sway their hips to classic ’80s pop.

However, it’s one thing for a couple to scream about each other going out, or to have incredible sex. Less explosive but more profound mismatches are difficult for them to deal with, such as Charlie’s frustration with Julia’s workaholism and Julia’s disinterest in marriage and starting a family. Or to know what to do with those spells when there’s nothing really wrong, but nothing’s quite right either.

In the face of such mundane but undeniable problems, even contact violent enough to conjure fireworks or earthquakes may have its limits. but Wishful thinkingThe last and most poignant insight is that love can lead to more than one kind of happy ending.