In Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi!, Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) go for a drive, ending up at cottage country near NYC, where they talk about things like how they reacted to their first heartbreaks. Iris confesses that she wanted to stab that boy / man, which, in this film, makes for great foreshadowing. After a night of bondage-y sex, Isaac confesses that he doesn’t want a relationship with Iris, yet. Isaac is already in chains by then, and that makes her want to keep him there.

Isaac, being a man, attempts to exert his power even after Iris chains him up for longer than she promises. And he tells her that because of her actions, if he escapes, he can charge her with kidnapping. Realizing she might go to prison, Iris consults her best friends, Max and Kenny. Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds play the couple who, strangely enough, are on Iris’ side. But despite all of this, Isaac can still escape, and Iris can still face severe consequences.

Other films like this explore the dark side of kidnapping an ex-lover in ways this one never does, and technically, that approach makes a film like this less than perfect objectively, stars wise. But Gordon and Lerman understand what kind of movie Oh, Hi! is and act accordingly. They have good banter, especially when Gordon plays up the ‘woman wronged’ archetype. I mean, who among us has not had the urge to stab a man who treats us like bad men do?

Gordon is obviously aces in Oh, Hi!, a film that she and Brooks worked on meticulously, but the film has a surprising wild card in Kenny and the actor who plays him. When Max and Kenny get in on the kidnapping action, obviously Max takes Iris’s side of things. Isaac and Kenny’s interactions make it obvious that the former is trying to get an ally. Kenny is civil, if not gentle towards Isaac, but his loyalties to Max make dynamics more complex.

In general, Oh, Hi!‘s above and below the line work considers these characters’ histories, as Iris and Isaac’s four months of dating matter just as much as the latter’s ‘rejection’ of her. The same goes for Max and Kenny, working as foils for the main and unhappy couple. David Cross also shows up as a neighbour chastising Iris and Isaac’s sexual activities. Back on topic, viewers can see this even if the story goes on wild turns, like when it involves witchcraft. But again, I ask, who among us have not turned to witchcraft for those we love?

Oh, Hi! is available to watch in select Canadian theatres.