'Something From Tiffany's' Review: A Warm But Weak Romantic Comedy That's Not Zoey Deutch-worthy

Twenty-eight-year-old actress Zoey Deutch was either born at the wrong time to star in romantic comedies, or at the perfect time to redeem them. If only it was both. If only people were still making rom-coms worthy of Deutch's light and amiability - who previously flirted with the genre in Netflix's "Set It Up," between edgier roles like "Everybody Wants Some!!" and "Disagree" - is more capable of bringing that side of Meg Ryan to them than anyone else.

But they're not, and nowhere is that more evident than in a warm but dim-witted holiday trifle like "Something from Tiffany's," which gives Deutch a chance to shine at full strength for a movie that can barely muster the energy to power a string of Christmas lights. I guess it's only fitting that her character is more of a Hanukkah-like girl, because the fire she brings to the role is almost strong enough to keep this contrived love story burning (at simmer lows) for 83 minutes.

Adapted from Melissa Hill's novel of the same name, "Something from Tiffany's" begins with a sweatier premise than Patrick Ewing's halftime, forcing Tamara Chestna's screenplay to unravel ultra-messy story beats when 'He needs to be more focused on sparking a loving connection. The action begins in the titular jewelry store on one of those magical nights in New York, as a cartoonishly handsome widower named Ethan ("Insecure" escape Kendrick Smith Sampson) and his preteen daughter Daisy (Leah Jeffries) shop for the engagement ring Ethan plans to give his gorgeous but distant girlfriend, Vanessa (Shay Mitchell).

Standing on the sidewalk outside after making his fateful purchase, Ethan is hit by a harassed white shmo who comes out of Tiffany's with his own little blue bag before being run over by a yellow cab. That's when - in a classic confusion that "Lola Versus" director Daryl Wein shoots with all the clarity of a scene from "Last Year in Marienbad" - the two men end up walking away with the wrong gifts.

So far so typical of the genre. Even Daisy's insistence that Ethan bring her to the hospital to check on the injured stranger seems plausible enough by rom-com standards; I mean, how else is Ethan supposed to meet the victim's beaming and always optimistic girlfriend, Rachel (Deutch), a baker who seems to run his restaurant Little Italy and the pop-up of Bryant Park on pluck and cornettos alone?



Things don't really get complicated until the gifts are exchanged: Ethan is surprised to learn he's given Vanessa a modest pair of earrings, while that cash-strapped tattoo artist Gary (Ray Nicholson, Jack's son) is shocked to find he bought Rachel an engagement ring as big as the Ritz, even though the two never talked about getting married . Adding to Gary's shock is the fact that he's apparently been hit by one of those fancy new amnesia taxis (only in Eric Adams' New York!), and can't remember if he intended to propose to Rachel or not. He knows he couldn't afford the diamond, but when a bright-eyed chef who talks to his soup and wears a Zabar's t-shirt with the grace of a little black dress agrees to be your wife, you won't. don't give him a reason to back down.

"Something from Tiffany's" is actually at its best in the 49 minutes it spends checking receipts, partly because the movie is so much more interesting before Gary is just an oblivious Peter Gallagher-esque doofus in "While You Were Sleeping". "You know, before he's inevitably unmasked as a full-fledged asshole who's so bad for Rachel you can't tell if she's falling for a new guy or just escaping her ex's clutches. ; Nicholson's stellar performance doesn't really leave much room for mystery, but it's hard to imagine anyone could breathe life into the soft climactic scene as the character reveals his true colors.

Better than it seems Vanessa has spared the indignity of becoming an evil stepmother, the movie's reasons for kicking this spotless fairytale woman - she doesn't want to live in New York ? She thinks Ethan's first novel sucks and he should stick to academia? - are somehow even less satisfying. True love has a funny way of revealing any current or past impersonations, but lethargic "Something from Tiffany's" offers none of the laughs that should go along with it.

What the film has is a certain holiday charm, even if the chemistry between Sa...