Brooks locks up the complexities of commitment in ‘Oh, Hi!’

Cinema | August 4th, 2025

By Greg Carlson

When I first heard the premise for “Oh, Hi!” — which has been described as a “romantic comedy” if you imagine a twisted sense of the term — visions of two Stephen King novels popped into my head. In “Misery,” a writer is held captive by an obsessed fan. And in “Gerald’s Game,” a woman must figure out how to survive after finding herself handcuffed to a bed. King’s two stories exist principally in the space of the psychological thriller (with scary elements incorporated) while “Oh, Hi!” hopes for some laughter along with its rueful recognition of failed intimate partnerships. Director Sophie Brooks, who wrote the screenplay from a story she created with star Molly Gordon, understands the border that separates the most ridiculous expression of bad ideas from the pathos that accompanies rejection.

Gordon plays Iris, a young woman inclined to hide her tightly-wound neuroticism behind a veil of affability and enthusiasm. Iris has been seeing Isaac (Logan Lerman) long enough for the couple to plan a road trip getaway, but not long enough, we discover, for an exclusive commitment. The opening sections of the movie are the strongest, as we enjoy figuring out the contours and dynamics of this pairing. Some brief flashbacks will also fill in a few blanks. Brooks stages a clever scene on the way to the farmhouse rental in which Iris and Isaac stop to buy strawberries from a local whose flirtatious comments to Isaac bug Iris. Along with a hilarious slapstick button that wraps up the exchange and might be a sign of things to come, we note just enough of the insecurity that will shortly roar like a lion.

Settling in, Iris discovers that a bedroom closet contains handcuffs, costumes, and other erotic bondage paraphernalia. One thing leads to another, and Isaac ends up locked to the bedframe without access to a key. Iris makes the unwise decision to keep him restrained, eventually involving friends Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Kenny (John Reynolds), who add more fuel to the chaotic and illegal conundrum. Brooks and Gordon don’t fully sustain the electricity of the first-half set-up once Max and Kenny enter the story, in large part due to the way in which the broken-logic shenanigans resemble so many tropes routinely deployed in TV sitcoms. That said, Viswanathan swipes a few scenes, including one in which she casts an absurd black magic incantation.

Brooks and Gordon began discussing what would become “Oh, Hi!” during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, operating with the idea that limited locations and a small number of actors could be the route to getting something made. In a reflection published in “Variety” ahead of the movie’s Sundance premiere, Brooks summarized the desired tone: “Molly and I dreamed up a story about a woman desperately seeking love as a way to process our own fears and poke fun at them, in the hopes that people would watch it and laugh and cringe and feel seen and entertained.” Fair enough.

“Oh, Hi!” never tells the viewer exactly how to feel about either Isaac or Iris, a move that works in the film’s favor. Brooks comfortably toys with expectations and stereotypes that we all ingest on a daily basis, carefully pulling back when we start to think that Iris looks “crazy” or desperate. The same courtesy is extended to Lerman’s Isaac, who never crosses over into full-blown user/asshole territory (some critics have wrongly dismissed the quality of his performance). By withholding moral judgement of her characters, Brooks largely gets to have her cake and eat it.

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