The affable, undemanding rom-com, "I Want You Back" — alert: Valentine's Day is next week — has Peter (Charlie Day) being dumped by Anne (Gina Rodriguez) just as Noah (Scott Eastwood) breaks up with Emma (Jenny Slate). Anne and Noah both feel stuck in their going-nowhere relationships. Viewers may find complacency with this entry in the genre. The film coasts on the charms of it leads, and offers smiles instead of laughs, comfort instead of romance.
The screenplay, written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger (who penned "Love, Simon"), takes a simple premise that has Peter and Emma meeting cute and scheming to get their exes back by breaking up their new relationships. Think "Strangers on a Train" with marriage instead of murder as the objective. Only the characters describe it as "Cruel Intentions," only sexier. (It's not sexier, they acknowledge; such is the film's humor).
