Movie Review: The Lovebirds (2020)

Synopsis: Leilani and Jibran decide to end their 4-year-long relationship while driving to a friend's party. Distracted by the breakup, Jibran accidentally hits a man riding a bicycle. The bike rider refuses treatment and rides away, but another man, claiming to be a police officer, takes control of their car, runs the bike rider down and then flees. Believing the police won't believe their bizarre story, Leilani and Jibran also flee the scene and decide the only way they can stay out of prison is by finding the real killer.

Who's in it? The movie stars Issa Rae, Kumail Nanjiani, Paul Sparks, Anna Camp and Kyle Bornheimer.


Review: I had never even heard about this movie until my wife saw a preview for it and got it through our local library. She described it as being similar to one of our favorite films, Date Night, however I did have some doubts about it. As it turns out, while not as funny as Date Night, it was still better than expected.

I think the thing I liked most about this movie was the mystery about what was going on. In addition to witnessing a man get brutally murdered with their car, Leilani (Rae) and Jibran (Nanjiani) saw the same man kill a group of other men, were taken hostage by a woman (Camp) and her husband (Bornheimer) and infiltrated a secret sex cult. It was fun seeing how all those things were connected.

Another thing I found I liked about this movie was their reaction to the initial murder wasn't completely off-base. On the surface, it seemed like they'd at least have a chance to tell their side of the story, especially if they got an attorney first. However, the racial profiling argument was legit, and they did have two witnesses at the scene saying they were the murderers, so their fear of going to prison for something they didn't do seemed believable.

As is usually the case with films in this genre, there were some parts of the movie that were very predictable. This is especially true of their "breakup," which just seemed a bit forced considering there was no point in the movie when I truly believed they wouldn't get back together at the end. In fact, I pretty much predicted the entire ending when we were only about 15 minutes into the movie.

I also wish the movie would have spent more time on that secret society/cult, just because I'm not really sure what the fuss was about. Yes, some of the things they did might be embarrassing if exposed to the general public, but the movie wanted me to believe they were doing something illegal, and I just didn't see that. An explanation about why the police felt the need to carry out a raid would have been helpful.

Final Opinion: As I said, Date Night was better. However, this movie was still funny and entertaining enough to watch at least once.

My Grade: A

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