Friendship, Breakups, RuPaul and Gina Rodriguez Shine in Someone Great

So, how do women determine how to find ‘someone great?’  For me, it’s all about a sense of humor.  If a dude can make me laugh…I’m all in hook, line and sinker.

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Someone Great has the energy of the 90’s classic ‘About Last Night’ just a little edgier and strictly from the female point of view.  Jenny Young (Gina Rodriguez) is an idealistic writer with aspirations of nabbing a great gig.  She finally does and it turns her world and relationships upside down. This gig involves a relocation to the opposite coast and means leaving the care free days of college and the relationships that represents that time behind.  Not to mention, a totally devastating break-up with the guy she without a doubt thought was ‘someone great.’

Robinson’s choice of grabbing the story at the moment Jenny meets Nate (Lakeith Stanfield) and going backwards in time via high-speed Internet posts (ala Searching with John Cho) to illustrate how we got to the break-up, the epic last night in Manhattan with besties Blair (Brittany Snow) and Erin (Dewanda Wise) and how they all find the resolution with love and/or life is hilarious.  Why?  It takes a gut wrenching break-up and with humor to shows there is always a blessing with a broken heart.  If you’re lucky, you will grow, learn and become a more enlightened, mature, wiser version of the previous you.

The script is witty and funny with lines like “mistaking a rat for a chihuahua”, “weed is like catsup…it doesn’t go bad” or my personal favorite from the subway scene where a zaftig chick waiting for the train looks at Jenny and says “we look like before and after pictures.”

This poem that Jenny writes sums up Someone Great in a nutshell…

“Do you think I can have one more kiss.  I’ll find closure on your lips and then I’ll go.  Maybe also one more breakfast, one more lunch and one more dinner – I’d be full and happy and we can part.  But, in between meals, maybe we can lie in bed on more time.  One more prolonged moment where time suspends indefinitely as I rest my hand on your chest.  My hope is that if we add up all the ‘one mores”, they will equal a lifetime and I’ll never have to get to the part where I let you go.”

Now streaming on Netflix and complete with a surprisingly fantabulous cameo by RuPaul,  Someone Great is a an awesome cautionary tale of how ambition can kill a relationship that is not secure from the start.  But, it also eloquently shows how to let go and move on to the next chapter of life with grace and dignity.