Kiernan Shipka leads the reductive, raunchy rom-com

Decades after “Harry and Sally” asked audiences whether grown men and women can be friends, another romantic comedy asks the same question to a contemporary college audience. But in director Jordan Weiss’s “Sweethearts,” about two best friends who break up with their hometown romance over a holiday weekend, the time-honored question waits until the final minutes to unfold as a separate pair of screwball -Comedy Storylines Find Refuge Not Completed Properly. Although the film features a talented ensemble and compelling sentiments about self-acceptance and platonic friendship, it feels like two half-baked screenplays connected by razor-thin connections.

Ben (Nico Hiraga) and Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) have been best friends since childhood and plan to stick together well into adulthood, starting with attending the same college in the same dorm at Densen University. However, outside of their close bond there is a world of complications, from Ben’s roommate Tyler (Zach Zucker), who treats him like a doormat, to Jamie’s roommate Kelly (Olivia Nikkanen), whose multiple attempts to drag her out of her shell failed. Even their romantic relationships cause them problems. Ben’s horny long-distance girlfriend Claire (Ava DeMary), who is still in high school at home, monopolizes his time and takes him for granted. Claire’s dim-witted jock boyfriend Simon (Charlie Hall) generally annoys her with his requests for sexts and movie nights. All of this has led to the two of them becoming the underdogs of their class – and they succeeded.

To better adapt and start over, Ben and Claire come up with a plan to dump Claire and Simon when they travel to Ohio for Thanksgiving. They plan to use their friend Palmer’s (Caleb Hearon) house since he has returned from Paris and is having a small coming out party there. But from the moment they break up, Ben and Claire encounter a series of problems, from a bus ride with an obnoxious, eavesdropping passenger (Stavros Halkias) to a reunion with an overzealous crush (Kate Pittard). Their significant others also go missing before they can let them go. Meanwhile, Palmer’s journey also requires some detours, for example he learns that there is a queer bowling league in their small town, which is attended by his former high school coach, Coach Reese (Tramell Tillman).

Along with co-writer Dan Brier, Weiss reuses all the formulaic teen comedy shenanigans of One Crazy Night with small tweaks that give stale goods a fresh shellac. Claire and Simon get drunk at a boring soirée, not a raging, rowdy house party, although one of these is seen later in the climax. A traumatic, toxic friend (Sophie Zucker) from Jamie’s past shows up, not to bully her, but to forgive and befriend her again. Ben and Jaime are forced to steal a stupid, cherry-red tandem bike, not a fancy car. And in one of the film’s cleverest strokes of invention, Ben is caught using a dead man’s ID by a burly bouncer (Darius “Nastyelgic” Jackson), who happened to be a pallbearer at his original owner’s funeral.

Despite the filmmakers’ attempts at raunchy humor, there’s not much that’s particularly funny, groundbreaking or memorable. They over-orchestrate these events, which thankfully appear early in the first film and are then omitted as it progresses (with the exception of an awkward sex tape that is finally revealed just before the credits roll). Ben and Jamie’s botched frat party sequence is clumsy – the seeds of potential disaster are sown, but we know how they’ll escalate and can predict their ultimate outcome. The construction of the jokes is cheap and simple, ranging from a bitter partygoer spilling her drink on Ben to the tipsy tertiary character going full-frontal in service of a gross-out gag.

While Palmer has a developed storyline independent of the platonic buddies, his storyline doesn’t particularly align with theirs. Its inclusion feels like either a leftover or an afterthought when it should either be prioritized or left out entirely. In the opening credits he is touted as her third best friend, but is not treated as such in the film’s staging. He spends most of his screen time separated from the two, searching for the queer community hiding under his nose – although he never noticed, given how much emphasis is placed on the fact that they live in a tiny town . He also ends up having to apologize to Ben and Jamie, even though they’re the ones who should be apologizing for basically ignoring him during their entire visit.

Ben and Jamie have an exuberant, rhythmic repartee that rises to the surface in their candid discussions of sex, love, hopes and fears. The narrative works best when it focuses on its conflicts and mysteries. Shipka and Hiraga are a wonderful match as they have relaxed, casual verbal conversations. Shipka finds a few vulnerable grace notes to play that reinforce her empathetic drive. Hiraga, who was a highlight in “Rosaline” and “Booksmart,” is a great leading man who highlights weaker aspects of the material and makes his hero moment feel earned.

DeMary and Hall bring depth and dimension to their characters as spurned soon-to-be exes. Christine Taylor, who plays Ben’s caring mother, and Joel Kim Booster, who plays Coach Riggs’ friend and Palmer’s wise confidante, bring much-needed courage to the proceedings. However, it’s a shame that this solid cast is relegated to such a forgettable subject.