Directed by: Michael Showalter
Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Issa Rae, Paul Sparks
Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae can do better than starring in a dimwitted, predictable comedy like The Lovebirds. I know. I've seen that they can. Ever since 2017's charming The Big Sick (written by and starring Nanjiani and directed by Michael Showalter), Nanjiani's stock as a comedic actor has plummeted with last year's bomb Stuber and now The Lovebirds. He and Rae play a couple on the verge of breaking up who are swiftly drawn into a bad situation on the way to a dinner party. They accidentally run into a bicyclist, and then a guy purporting to be a cop (Sparks) commandeers their car and runs over (and then backs over) the bicyclist after a brief chase through the streets of New Orleans. The cop leaves the scene, and witnesses assume Jibran (Nunjiani) and Leilani (Rae) are the culprits, causing the bickering couple to go on the lam.
Other than the opening minutes of The Lovebirds, when their relationship is in the honeymoon phase, Jibran and Leilani motormouth their way through one silly scenario after another. They try to steer clear of the police while trying to figure out why this bicyclist was killed. They bicker, they fight, they reconcile, and then they start up again. The couple is in a pickle, and everyone but them seems to know it. It is little wonder they are breaking up before the guy on the bike entered their lives, they ramble on incessantly about everything and get on each other's (and our) nerves.
We care little about Jibran and Leilani, since we know how all this will turn out for them, and we care even less about the plot their in, which involves an Eyes Wide Shut-inspired sex cult, blackmail, homicides, kicking horses, and the threat of scalding baking grease to the face. Jibran and Leilani are thrust into action hero mode, and manage to go mano a mano with a cop and drive in high speed chases through the streets with James Bond-like proficiency.
What else can be said about The Lovebirds? It won't score any points for originality, but not every movie needs to if even an overly worn story can find a way to be told with freshness and energy. Nanjiani and Rae try their best to supply that energy in the form of incessant dialogue between one another. Back around the Lethal Weapon days, having the leads cutely bicker their way through deadly gunfire and violence was new and entertaining. After three Lethal Weapon sequels and countless retreads, it is now trite and wearying. I read a review of The Lovebirds which dedicated twelve (yes 12!) full-length paragraphs to a movie which will likely be long forgotten in a month.
The Lovebirds isn't Casablanca folks. Heck, it isn't even Lethal Weapon 4.
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