Caitlin Cronenberg Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan bond over a fondness for Elvis trivia and other things in common in 'What If.' Anyone looking for a date-night flick will be inclined to fall for Michael Dowse’s aggressively adorable “What If.” Just be warned: The single-minded determination to win you over may wind up pushing you away.
Dowse blankets his love story with heavy layers of cutesy quirkiness, but there’s no denying its conventional and derivative soul. The central question here — Can men and women just be friends? — is lifted straight from “When Harry Met Sally.” The lilting indie vibe has “(500) Days of Summer” written all over it. And you’ve seen the wisecracking BFFs in, well, pretty much every rom-com ever made.
Fortunately, we have Daniel Radcliffe on hand to ground things. He plays Wallace, a heartbroken Brit trying to pull his life back together after losing his fiancée and dropping out of med school. He’s living in his sister’s attic in Toronto when he meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan), a sentimental animator with a closetful of vintage dresses. They share a love for Elvis trivia and snappy banter, so we know they’re meant to be.
Wallace knows it too, but Dowse needs to keep his movie going. So Chantry remains clueless, nattering on about her dull boyfriend (Rafe Spall) even as she spends every day with the increasingly smitten Wallace.
Kazan is encouraged to indulge in wide-eyed winsomeness, which keeps her character teetering between charming and irritating. Radcliffe makes Wallace simultaneously sharp and sweet. He also does a better job navigating Elan Mastai’s self-conscious script (based on the Canadian play “Toothpaste and Cigars”). Also invaluable is Adam Driver (“Girls”), who skulks around delivering amusingly acid observations as Wallace’s cynical best friend.
By now, you should have a pretty good idea about whether this is your kind of movie. But let’s make it even easier (mild spoiler alert): do you love or loathe the idea of a couple bonding over a romantic race to the airport/eye-opening trip to the hospital/life-changing job offer/rueful wedding speech?
“What If” doesn’t merely embrace one of those clichés. It’s so desperate to be loved that it flirts with them all.
eweitzman@nydailynews.com
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