Your Place or Mine could have been a wonderful film only if the writer knew how to handle complicated emotions and complex relationships. There is absolutely no emotional depth to a love story unfolding between two best friends. And yet, they kiss in the end and call it love. That’s not love, that’s absolute foolishness.
So, what’s Your Place or Mine film all about?
It opens with two people getting intimate and then the story is fast-forwarded twenty years. These two people, Debbie and Peter and now best friends who are not in a relationship. While Debbie is a single mother, Peter is a wealthy man who has not settled down with anyone yet.
They are so close that Debbie shares every single detail of her life with him and he is all ears to her but does he share his secrets or every life detail with her? The answer is, no! But when Debbie cancels her plan to travel to New York to complete a course as her friend who was supposed to look after her son, Jack, couldn’t, Peter offers to stay with him so that Debbie can go and complete the course.
While Peter becomes a best friend and father figure for Jack, Debbie meets Theo, Editor of a publishing house. As Debbie and Theo try to figure out if their interest in each other can turn into something more, Peter is busy being Jack’s caretaker.
The twist is very repetitive. Towards the end, Debbie finds out that Peter has been in love with her all these years which is why he is still single. She then revisits their memories and confesses that she loves her too.
It was a simple plot where everything that mattered was “emotions” and the bonding between Debbie and Peter. In the entire film, they are shown connected only via phone calls. The only things that could have made the story a worth watching love story is the chemistry between the duo. And if they couldn’t do it due to the text conversations, they should have made them pair meet in the middle of the film and then allowed them to explore their feelings for each other. When two people who love each other regardless of distance and whose love has not changed over the years, their bond only deepens. This could have been shown only via meaningful conversations. Those conversations, in itself, are lacking.
I don’t understand why the writer did not take the liberty to give this story the emotional twists and turns it so needed. Why did the writer fail to understand their bond? I hate it when stories with so much potential are wasted due to lack of depth in writing. Your Place or Mine is a wasted opportunity.
What a beautiful film this could have been… Only if the writer and director would have cared to show some love between the lead pair.
The Digital Popcorn 