“Oh, Hi!” (2025) is a title that symbolizes the fundamental miscommunication between a couple that sees the same things differently. A young New York couple, Iris (Molly Gordon who also cowrote the movie) and Isaac (Logan Lerman), drive upstate to High Falls for their first trip away together. Everything is going well until Iris refers to them as a couple, and Isaac corrects her while still chained to the bed. Iris comes up with the cockamamie idea of keeping him confined so she can convince him that they would make a great couple. When Iris realizes the ramifications of her actions, she panics and calls her best friend, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), who brings her soul mate, Kenny (John Reynolds). How will this situation get resolved without anyone dead or arrested?
Because we are in the worst timeline, I feel obligated to advise anyone who reads this review not to ever refuse to release someone after consensual acts of habeas corpus. It is an inherently violent and criminal act, and it is only because it happens in a movie billed as a comedy, not a horror, thriller or crime movie, is it possible to watch it play out without worrying. It is actually a testimony to cowriter and director Sophie Brooks’ skill that she can pull off the humor without the characters coming off as hateful or feeling as if the end would take a wrong turn. Do not try this at home. I’m not going to talk about the massive gender double standard because I’m old enough to remember the furor over the existence of “Boxing Helena” (1993). I’m simply going to acknowledge that it would be misogynistic if genders were reversed and let someone else write that think piece. Guys, take it from here!
Gordon and Lerman have chemistry. When their neighbor for the weekend pegs them as high school locals, it is not far from the truth. They look like babies, not adults. In real life, Gordon is thirty, and Lerman is thirty-three years old. Gordon must show a lot of range as Iris, a normal woman with an edgy sense of humor punctuated with the frequent use of the verb “stab,” but with a wide-eyed optimism about the weekend along with the inevitable, irrepressible anxiety that it will go pear shaped. Gordon conveys how invested Iris is without introducing desperation and unhinged behavior until Jacob is chained, and the countdown begins. Once she is gone, she unravels quite convincingly. Who knew that making French toast could symbolize a character’s mental health integrity. The only testament to her capacity to not be labeled forever as the crazy girlfriend is the people whom she surrounds herself with. A brief FaceTime with her mom (Polly Draper) was worth the price of admission. I’d happily watch a movie with just the two of them having brunch and catching up. Temporary insanity? Criminal lawyers, weigh in! She should be more in trouble than the latest generation in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (2025).
Lerman must be likeable enough for the audience to empathize with Isaac, but enough of a “soft boy,” i.e. a man who wants all the joys of relationship without reciprocating the responsibilities, for Iris not to be written off as a completely, irredeemable nutter. If he goes too far into jerk territory, moviegoers could start rooting for the outcome to devolve into something worse than being chained to the bed, which never happens. “Oh, Hi!” stays firmly out of the revenge thriller genre. Glenn Close and Michael Douglas can breathe easy. (I absolutely refuse to make a reference to a certain Stephen King movie because every review does, and that is not who I am. There is no point in writing the same review as everyone else.) Lerman is deft at showing his vulnerability as he tries to please his captor to protect his well-being but also is simultaneously so fed up with the situation and just yearns to escape. It is rare to see men forced to placate someone who has a physical advantage over them, and Lerman gets it right. He can leverage this performance into a fast track into victims in crime films. Brooks depicts this brilliantly as the camera reflects his point of view then Gordon tilts into the frame invading even his ability to mentally escape. Just when it becomes impossible to stomach the situation, it shifts into solid, absurd, ridiculous comedic territory.
Unsurprisingly Viswanathan always makes things better in films such as “Drive-Away Dolls” (2025), “You’re Cordially Invited” (2025) and “Thunderbolts*” (2025). She has a talent for grounding the most fantastical premises in reality, but here, her character Max switches things up, adds a bit of wishful thinking and introduces a dash of magic realism which leads to the final act’s suspense. Her chemistry with Gordon as fierce friends is perfect, and it is such a relief that “Oh, Hi!” nails that dynamic. Just when you think that it cannot get better, the movie’s MVP gets introduced.
Reynolds is such a scene stealer that he could end up charged and in jail. Kenny is a perfect foil for Isaac as a man so committed to his partner that he becomes Iris’ ride-or-die too. He also becomes a fast friend to Isaac. Reynolds’ line delivery is immaculate and hilarious as he treats an absurd, delicate and dangerous situation with a sense of normalcy, calm and casualness that it is easy to believe that everything is going to work out. He only loses it briefly and infrequently. Viswanathan and Reynolds are a convincing adorable couple. Without them, this film is not a comedy because Iris is too culpable to convince Isaac of his missteps because no one deserves his fate.
“Oh, Hi!” features some excellent oneiric scenes that reveal whether Isaac subconsciously knows that he shied away from commitment out of fear or lack of connection. In his conversations with Kenny, Isaac realizes that he is self-sabotaging. Brooks and Gordon line the story with Isaac’s inability to be in the driver’s seat for long. Isaac, an easily flustered man, tricks himself into commitment to and a firm resolution with Iris in the farfetched resolution.
There are some big names who add some seasoning to the proceedings. There is a blink and miss it cameo from Desmin Borges from “Hangdog” (2024) as Joe, the bartender, in a poignant flashback scene to show that Iris was not exaggerating about Isaac’s demeanor. David Cross plays the aforementioned neighbor, Steve, and just when the audience forgets about him, he pops right back up. His last appearance is the funniest because it is implied that everyone has talked about Steve offscreen, so the irrelevant minutiae of the weekend got a once over along with the main topic of discovering a “get out of jail” card. This group dynamic underscores that while Isaac may be the only sane person for miles, the running gag of how everyone reads his paperback book and drives him crazy with their skewed view of the world is emblematic of this film’s possible reception. It is a Rorschach test for who belongs together and who does not. If in the first five minutes, you feel hostile at the reason behind the title, just run because it will not get better for you. If you can tolerate it, stick around and squeeze a few chuckles out.
I went into “Oh, Hi!” skeptical because there has been so much pro-relationship propaganda possibly to help solve the alleged male loneliness epidemic. Media images of women desperate to be in relationships are far from the reality of increasing numbers of women skipping the once obligatory biological imperative, but Brooks and Gordon’s film is more generous to both sides than expected. The emotion behind the predicament feels genuine even if the scenario is wildly unrealistic and innately means that the characters will run out of runway before the movie lands, and pulled punches are necessary to keep it funny. Ladies and gentlemen, do not try this at home.
