I Could Watch Bad People Fall In Love All Day
Since quarantine began, I (like I’m sure many of you) have found myself perennially in search of a new rom com to watch — or, failing that, the right rom com to re-watch, some of them perhaps for the millionth time.
And more often than not, the rom com I have found myself returning to is Sleeping with Other People, Leslye Headland’s 2015 rom com that finds Jake (Jason Sudeikis) and Lainey (Alison Brie) as two friends who lost their virginities to each other and then meet again later on, he plagued with an addiction to sex, and her, an addiction to love. Based on their previous failures with relationships, they decide to be friends; but because this is a romantic comedy, we know from the very beginning that more than friendship is afoot.
However, all of the obstacles between Jake and Lainey are entirely of their creation. They are arguably not good people: Both of them cheat on their significant others and perpetuate toxic relationships. The film doesn’t judge Jake or Lainey for this, but it doesn’t shy away from it, either. All of the conflict that needs to be resolved before Jake and Lainey can get together is within themselves. Each of them need to grow, and learn, so that they can do the thing we’ve been wanting them to do for an hour and a half — to get together, to have their happy ending. This, of course, is in contrast to so many other rom coms, where there’s a horrible ex-girlfriend, or a horrible mother-in-law, or some force beyond our protagonists’ control. (Which is not to say that I don’t have a special place in my heart for these rom coms, too.)
But for me, what makes Sleeping with Other People — and other movies about flawed people falling in love — is that there’s a genuine question running throughout the course of the film as to whether or not Jake and Lainey will end up together, or if they even should. One of the main criticisms often lobbed at rom coms is that you know the leads are going to end up together, so if you know the destination, the journey has to be particularly good. When you watch rom coms with flawed characters, the destination is much more of a question mark, and has even brought us bittersweet endings like in 500 Days of Summer or My Best Friend’s Wedding.
Take When Harry Met Sally, for example, another movie about highly flawed people getting over themselves in order to finally be happy; Harry and Sally originally weren’t going to end the film married, and some even think that would even have made for a more satisfying ending. But because Harry and Sally, or Jake and Lainey, spend the whole movie feeling each other out and growing closer, we get to learn more about why their specific neuroses complement each other — which as far as I can tell, is what we’re all searching for IRL, too.
We hosted a watch party earlier this year with IFC Films to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Sleeping With Other People! You can watch the recording of our chat with Leslye, Jason and Alison on Youtube here.