Long-distance relationships in college are hard and sometimes the best thing to do is end things so everyone can be happy. Well, breakups can be hard if you don’t have your best friend at school with you who is also going through the same thing. Sweethearts is a comedy that follows friends Ben (Nico Hiraga) and Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) as they realize they must break up with their high school sweethearts over Thanksgiving break. With the support of their friend Palmer (Caleb Hearon), the pair embark on a journey to find a way to civilly end their relationships without crossing any boundaries.
To start with some positives, I thoroughly enjoyed the pairing of Shipka and Hiraga. I thought their friendship felt truly authentic like they had been friends for years before they got together and started filming this movie. They display a level of comfort with each other that helps make this type of story work. It’s a very low-stakes story, there are no real hijinks or crazy hoops Ben and Jamie have to jump through to get from college to home. I think it works well to keep this as grounded as possible and let these two carry the movie with their charm. And they do, specifically Shipka. I haven’t seen much of what Hiraga has done but I am very familiar with Kieran’s work. She is incredibly adorable in this movie, yet she dominates the screen.
But to me, the real star of this movie is Caleb Hearon. While his role is pretty disjointed from the main storyline, his subplot probably carried the most emotional weight. He is coming home from time in Paris and is getting ready to formally come out to everyone he knows. Living in Ohio, it is not an easy time to be gay, even in the modern day. He plans this whole extravagant event to flaunt himself for everyone to see, but the high school football coach of all people is the one to show him a different side of his town and a different side of himself. This was the part that stuck with me. He let himself be vulnerable and it added a depth to this movie that it had no business having.
Comedy is subjective, and unfortunately, I didn’t connect with a fair amount of the jokes this movie offered. The raunchiness of this movie is nothing new, but was still enjoyable nonetheless.
It is kind of funny that this movie focuses on the friendship of Ben and Jamie and not the romance at all because I didn’t feel any sort of sexual tension between the two. I’m not going to spoil the ending but the romance was incredibly light, to the point where I don’t know if this is even a rom-com or just a straight comedy. I would rather there be no romance at all than forced so I’ll give the movie a lot of credit for calling its shot and not giving in to all the tropes, even though most of the story does.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Sweethearts is a fun, inoffensive comedy that feels perfect for the times we are in if you’re reading this around Thanksgiving. It tells some good jokes with its charismatic leads and quirky side characters, but it doesn’t do much to stand out from other comedies or rom-coms. Shipka and Hiraga are awesome friends together and Hearon is a showstealer, however. Sweethearts is a low-stakes movie worth your time.
