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Pedantic Comedy

As "The Lovebirds" opens, Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) have just met and spent the night together. They are standing on her front step, saying their awkward goodbyes, which turns into going for breakfast. They eat, talk, walk through a park, exchange numbers, and spend the whole day together. There seems to be a spark, built out of flirtations, which could blossom into something. Cut to a screen that says "Four Years Later," and Jibran and Leilani's meet-cute has turned into a weathered relationship.

The couple is getting ready to go out, and fighting about something insignificant because the movie wants you to know that their relationship has really been through it already. In fact, on their way out they decide perhaps it's time to go their separate ways. The days of wanting to walk through the park and sit and talk on a bench seem to be in their rearview. But by screenplay intervention, Jibran and Lelani witness a murder and flee the scene. They become prime suspects and must run all over to clear their names.

Director Michael Showalter (who directed Nanjiani's Oscar-nominated script for "The Big Sick") settles into a quick-and-easy pace for the run-all-night formula at hand. The movie clocks in at 86-minutes and moves with ease throughout. The screenplay, written by Aaron Abrams and Brendan Gall, feels so deeply manufactured and strung together by uninspired scenarios that "The Lovebirds" never really entertains as much as its breezy pace should allow it to. The movie isn't interested in surprising you because every step of Jibran and Leilani's journey can be predicted scene-by-scene. When trouble is lurking around the corner, it never feels entirely threatening to the characters.

Nanjiani and Rae are a fine pair; perhaps without the strongest comedic chemistry, but they have no issue doing what the screenplay asks of them. Nanjiani plays it straight, dialing it up for comedic emphasis in certain scenes, but Rae gets most of the film's laughs thanks to her delivery. Most of what the characters encounter feels tired and repeated from several movies before, but Rae is able to make the simplest line sing. Her talents have been on display for four seasons on HBO's Insecure, and she brings them to "The Lovebirds" and elevates the mundane story.

"The Lovebirds" was set to premiere at this year's South by Southwest Festival, but the event was one of the early entertainment casualties of the current pandemic. Netflix acquired the film from Paramount, which allows them set the movie up with a quicker streaming date for those stuck at home. Perhaps at home in the nest is where "The Lovebirds" is suited best.

"The Lovebirds" begins streaming on Netflix on May 22.