Note to new couples: Best not to define a relationship while one is chained to the bed after a bit of experimentation. Granted, neither thought they needed to have this conversation, but it quickly becomes clear that they both heard things differently. Iris thought they were exclusive. Isaac thought it was perfectly clear that they weren’t and aren’t. But why, Iris asks, are they doing this at all after four months? Why are they on this trip? Why did he make her scallops? It’s enough to make anyone go a little mad, which Iris does, deciding that she’s going to keep Isaac chained up until they talk it through to her satisfaction.
It’s a kind of over-the-top, Misery-styled meditation on entrenched gender cliches in heterosexual dating. The women are crazy and needy. The men are jerks and aloof. And no amount of rational discussion on either side will end the stalemate. Iris believes that if he just gets to know her a little better, perhaps he’ll change his mind. She goes long on her biography in a funny little sequence, but the monologuing doesn’t help Isaac figure out how to escape. It just goes on.
Oh, Hi! follows this path to extreme ends as Iris involves Max and her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds), who are all trying to figure out how to get out of the situation without going to jail. It’s admirable how ardently they commit to making this outlandish premise as realistic as possible.
The film loses the plot a bit when Max and Kenny get involved and things get extra silly. It might have been better had it stayed with Iris and Isaac to the bitter end. Gordon, who co-wrote the story with Brooks, is a huge reason it works at all. She somehow keeps Iris grounded and relatable throughout, which is no small feat after she makes her big mistake. At times, that epic misstep made me think that Oh, Hi! might be the female Friendship. And while Lerman gets substantially less to do, you come out feeling for both characters, trapped in anxieties of their own making and a social structure in which neither romance nor commitment seems to be a priority. At least this film lets us laugh about it a little bit.
And lest you think people in relationships have it easier, just wait until Together arrives next week.
‘Oh, Hi!’ is released in theaters on July 25, 2025.