Oh, Hi! – Film Review

Sophie Brooks’ Oh, Hi!, co-written with star Molly Gordon, takes the well-worn road trip romance and spins it on its head with biting humor, strange turns, and emotional clarity that gradually creeps up on you. What begins as a sweet and sun-dappled romantic getaway quickly veers into something far more unpredictable, edging into absurdist territory without ever losing sight of the vulnerability at its heart.

The film stars Molly Gordon as Iris, a smart, emotionally intuitive woman who is in the early stages of what she believes to be a promising relationship. Opposite her is Logan Lerman’s Isaac, affable and slightly elusive, whose easygoing charm masks deeper uncertainty. The couple’s chemistry is immediately apparent in the film’s warm, intimate opening scenes. Brooks, known for her low-key emotional realism in The Boy Downstairs, brings a similar touch here—capturing moments that feel lived-in, from banter over snacks at a gas station to the quiet tension of unspoken expectations.

What sets Oh, Hi! apart from other romantic comedies is not just the left-field premise (which, to the film’s credit, isn’t played for cheap laughs), but its tonal precision. It blends the madcap with the melancholic in a way that recalls early Noah Baumbach or even Obvious Child. The screenplay is witty and sharp, full of sardonic asides and comedic misfires that feel both awkward and painfully true. But beneath the quirk is a genuine interrogation of power dynamics in modern romance—specifically, the emotional vulnerability that can emerge when commitment levels don’t align.

The catalyst for the film’s escalating tension—a sexual moment turned hostage situation—could easily have derailed the tone. And yet, Brooks and Gordon manage to navigate it with impressive dexterity. Rather than reducing it to a joke or ramping it up for thriller theatrics, the sequence is treated with an oddball emotional honesty. Iris’s actions, however outrageous, stem from a place of confusion and heartbreak, not cruelty. Lerman, meanwhile, grounds Isaac with a mix of restraint and mounting frustration. He never plays Isaac as a pure victim or a jerk, but rather as a young man terrified of emotional entrapment—his own emotional cowardice matching Iris’s impulsive desperation.

The film takes a surreal turn with the arrival of Iris’s friend Max, played with delightful energy by Geraldine Viswanathan. Max’s comedic presence—zany, empathetic, and genuinely concerned—injects a fresh rhythm into the story, and her chemistry with Gordon makes their friendship feel refreshingly real. John Reynolds’ Kenny, Max’s boyfriend, serves as the deadpan outsider voice of reason. He’s baffled, occasionally horrified, but never cruel, and Reynolds gets some of the film’s funniest lines by simply reacting to the insanity around him.

What’s most surprising is how emotionally grounded Oh, Hi! remains even as its plot veers into the bizarre—complete with a memory-erasing potion and a naked ritual performed in the name of emotional closure. The ridiculousness of these events is acknowledged by the characters, but they’re also treated with an earnest belief in their symbolic value. This is not a film interested in conventional resolution, but in catharsis by way of absurdist metaphor. The memory potion is not meant to work—it’s meant to reveal how far these characters are willing to go to avoid dealing with reality.

Visually, the film leans into a soft, autumnal aesthetic. Cinematographer Conor Murphy captures the rental house and surrounding woods with an inviting warmth that stands in contrast to the mounting emotional discomfort. This juxtaposition works well to underline the theme: even the coziest, most Instagrammable getaways can’t hide the messiness of real emotional growth.

The score by Steven Price adds a tender, idiosyncratic pulse to the film. Rather than playing up the comedy with bombastic cues, Mosseri lets the score drift between whimsical and wistful, supporting the emotional undercurrents without overshadowing them.

If the film stumbles anywhere, it’s in its pacing during the third act. After an explosive middle section, the final twenty minutes stretch slightly thin as the script tries to find an ending that feels both earned and satisfying. A key emotional reconciliation, while thematically rich, may feel a touch too convenient for some viewers. Still, the performances sell it, particularly Gordon, whose final scenes reveal a deepening maturity and emotional insight that elevate the entire film.

Oh, Hi! ultimately succeeds because it refuses to be easily categorized. It’s a rom-com, yes—but one where love isn’t always logical, where miscommunication spirals into chaos, and where characters deal with the fallout not through grand romantic gestures, but through conversation, humility, and unexpected kindness. It’s a film about control, about vulnerability, about the fear of being seen too clearly too soon.

Molly Gordon’s turn as Iris is perhaps her most compelling screen performance to date. She gives Iris layers of charm, mania, and sincerity—someone who is both painfully self-aware and impulsively driven by emotion. Logan Lerman, too, shines with a role that allows him to blend boyish charisma with wounded defensiveness. Their dynamic never feels canned or contrived. Even when the plot goes off the rails, their relationship remains the believable, beating heart of the movie.

By the time Oh, Hi! reaches its understated conclusion, it’s clear that Brooks and Gordon weren’t interested in neat resolutions. They were interested in the awkward, jagged process of people figuring out what they need—and who they’re willing to become to get it. In its own strange, sweet, and deeply human way, Oh, Hi! earns its emotional payoff by embracing the chaos that so often accompanies modern love.

Oh, Hi! is a refreshing, deeply odd, and often hilarious romantic comedy that dares to take its characters down a rabbit hole of emotional reckoning. With standout performances and a wildly unpredictable story, it’s a bold entry in the genre that doesn’t play it safe—and is all the better for it.