Alexandra Daddario's Romantic Fantasy Movie Is A Fun Netflix Weekend Watch
by Witney Seibold · /FilmAri Sandel's 2018 film "When We First Met," currently playing on Netflix, is about a poor sap named Noah (Adam DeVine) who met the love of his life, Avery (Alexandra Daddario, "The Mayfair Witches"), at a Halloween party back in 2014. He is smitten with Avery's charms, but she merely enjoys his company as a friend. The day after that fateful party, Avery met a guy named Ethan (Robbie Amell), the man she was destined to fall in love with.
Fast-forward to the present, and Noah is distraught that Avery and Ethan are getting married. He always resented that he fell in love with Avery first. Noah is invited to their engagement party, which stings. Noah has a few too many drinks and passes out in a photo booth. It seems, though, that this is a magical photo booth, and Noah is magically transported back in time to the Halloween party from a few years before.
Noah spends the rest of the movie repeatedly traveling back in time and trying various seduction techniques to see which one can most effectively woo Avery. He tries one out in the past, returns to the present, and checks to see if he has manufactured the correct Happily Ever After. Of course, Noah fails multiple times in this experiment. When he behaves like a pushy "alpha-male" in 2014, for instance, he finds he is a gross boor in the present. In every timeline, he finds — much to his chagrin — that Avery is always drifting toward Ethan.
"When We First Met" is currently on Netflix, and it seems distracting enough. The film received middling reviews, boasting an unimpressive 45% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews, but many still might find the flick a fun weekend watch.
When We First Met is a time travel comedy about stalled romance
"When We First Met," in its premise, is clearly about the friendzone. That is: Noah wants his friendship with Avery to be a romantic or sexual relationship, but Avery has no such intentions, keeping him as a friend. The concept of the friendzone, however, is often criticized as being misogynistic, as it is the result of presumed male privilege and assumed "ownership" of a woman in a relationship. See also: "Just Friends."
Back in 2014, when "When We First Met" opens, author Riva Dasgupta wrote an essay for the Maneater about the term's inherent sexism. By extension, "When We First Met" also met some criticism for being misogynistic as well. David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote that Noah, when he realizes he can travel back in time — which is an extraordinary phenomenon — only thinks to use the opportunity to get a woman into bed. Indeed, each time he "meets" Avery in 2014, she's a stranger again, so he is very much taking advantage of her.
As with many time travel stories, "When We First Met" ends with the realization that time shouldn't be played with. In a Voltairean sense, all time travel stories are about how we're living in the best possible world, and all alterations to the timeline will bring about grave misfortune.
And, to be fair, "When We First Met" does eventually see Noah — however narrow, narcissistic, and sexist he may be at the beginning of the story — realize he's wrong about Avery. She simply doesn't love him. Indeed, Noah begins to realize that, in his time-travel shenanigans, he is actually in love with his friend Carrie (Shelley Henning). He does grow.