Peter and Emma are nice people. They’re both funny and kind. And while not being the most attractive individuals you might cross paths with, they are both pleasantly appealing.
Oh, and Peter and Emma have one other thing in common: They both just got dumped!
They thought they were completely happy with the “love of their life” until being unceremoniously tossed aside like last year’s unwanted and chocolate-smeared Valentine’s card.
That’s how both Peter and Emma found themselves weeping … uncontrollably … everywhere … for weeks. And that’s actually how they met, while both weeping in the emergency exit stairway at the building where they work.
Well, misery, they say, loves company. And though Emma and Peter didn’t invite their miserable company, they do sniffle out wet intros to one another and eventually head out to drink their mutual pain away.
Of course, pain doesn’t drink away. Drinking only makes pain snuggle closer. It also leads you to other completely stupid ideas. And after a few hours of tossing back boilermakers, a spate of karaoke singing, and a few more boilermakers, Peter and Emma agree on a plan.
If their life-loves—Noah and Anne—have somehow lost their way, if they’ve messed up and thrown away their only chance at true happiness, isn’t it only right to help those lost lambs home? And since Noah and Anne are both in new relationships, Peter and Emma will cause those relationships to implode, erupt into fire and burn to cinders! Ahem. Then, while miserable themselves, Noah and Anne can be nudged back into the true loving arms where they belong.
It’ll be easy, Peter and Emma reason. They’ll make everybody else just as miserable as they are. That’s what love would do. Right?
You know, maybe Peter and Emma aren’t very nice at all.
In a way, you could see this pic as something of a cautionary tale. It warns those coming out of a broken relationship to put aside any vindictive thoughts. And it suggests that taking your time and finding someone you can truly be compatible with is the wisest course of action. In fact, the movie tells us that there are lots of wonderful qualities in people, beyond just physical appeal, that one can find and fall in love with.
Emma and Peter help each other take the initiative to make positive life changes and reach for personal goals.
[Spoiler Warning] Peter befriends Noah and nudges him toward re-embracing his party-boy past. He hopes that doing so will result in a breakup with his current girlfriend, Ginny. Instead, Peter inadvertently reminds Noah of all the things he purposely left behind, as well as the things he longs for, such as a loving wife, family and kids—all outcomes that he sees as possible with Ginny.
Honesty wins out in the end here. There are a number of manipulative comedic escapades in the story mix, but ultimately Peter and Emma choose to admit their wrongdoing. They receive their bitter comeuppances. But it all works to the good for almost all involved.
Emma mentions that her father has passed away. Later, when a kid is talking about his dad’s sex life, Emma notes that her father isn’t having sex with anyone, “except with angels.”
The film takes it for granted that unmarried couples who like each other will sleep together. And we see three different couples in bed. Two of those interactions are fairly revealing.
Two women and a man caress and kiss each other in a threesome, for instance. It’s played as a comedic scene, but the women strip down to undergarments and the guy strips to his underwear before things are broken up.
A different sex scene begins with a couple kissing passionately while removing articles of clothing. Someone is caught in a nearby trunk and has to listen to everything. The scene then jumps to after their lovemaking. The guy in bed jumps out and stands fully naked in the face of the guy in the trunk who has to lay there at crotch level. (The camera eyes nearly all of this naked guy except his strategically covered anatomy.)
Peter and Noah are invited over to a girl’s home party after drinking at a club. Several of the women strip to bikinis and a group of guys shuck everything but their briefs—some jump from a rooftop into a hot tub. A pair of young women snuggle up to kiss Noah. Later the guys realize that all the young women at the party are still in high school.
Peter goes over to Emma’s apartment and they try to talk over the loud sex happening in the next room between Emma’s roommates. The roommates finish and walk out, the woman dressed in a long T-shirt and the guy shirtless.
We see a variety of images and videos of couples kissing and hear sexually tinged texts read aloud. Emma wears some low-cut, cleavage-baring tops and curve-hugging outfits. One of the early plans Peter and Emma dream up is to have her surprise Noah with the false news that she’s pregnant or to show up somewhere naked on a bear skin rug. But they abandon both ideas.
Some school kids make crude sexual comments. And one young guy talks to Emma about his gay father’s sexual proclivities. Peter makes some comments about his desire to be a father someday that are misconstrued, making him appear to be a pedophile. He and Emma also have a brief comedic conversation about sexual positions.
There are several crude jokes made about young kids and their sexuality.
Emma helps out with a local middle-school production of Little Shop of Horrors. During the live performance, some of the kids end up covered in stage blood and spitting the stuff out in a death scene.
While working out, Peter drops a heavy barbell with weights on his chest. Noah punches Peter in the face.
More than 15 f-words and a dozen s-words are joined by a couple of uses each of “d–n,” “h—” and “a–.” There are nearly 20 misuses of God’s name and two of Jesus’ name.
Drinking heavily is portrayed as a pretty common event in the lives of modern young adults. Peter and Emma imbibe their way to drunkenness repeatedly. Peter and Noah go out and party at a club, too. The pair also takes Molly (a form of Ecstasy) and are driven by the euphoria-rising, mind-numbing drug to do foolish things. A variety of others drink throughout the film, especially when the action turns to the booze-filled club.
Emma and Peter light up cigarettes together as a once-heard way of easing their anguish, but they only end up coughing and choking on the smoke. A young kid begins to light up a cig before Emma stops him.
Obviously, both Peter and Emma respond to their hurt and disappointment vengefully, seeking to inflict pain back upon those who’ve hurt them.
Have you ever been on a bad blind date? You know, a friend sets you up with someone who seems attractive and nice, but you quickly realize the two of you are just not simpatico.
Well, I Want You Back is that kind of movie. Which can lead to that kind of date night. It’s really sweet at times and very funny. Leads Jenny Slate and Charlie Day, are both appealing and likable.
But then the movie’s R-rated side slips out, knocking everything off the table with booze-fueld foul language, crude talk and awkward sexual silliness. And you can’t help but think: Ew, that was totally unnecessary.
We could have gotten along. Really. But this pic’s nasty side makes things way too uncomfortable.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
