Final Rating: 3/5
In For Worse, Amy Landecker stars as Lauren, a newly divorced mother in her 50s relearning how. Also written and directed by Landecker, For Worse is a romantic comedy with a steady flow of cute and funny scenes, but ultimately not more than the sum of its parts.
For Worse begins on home movie footage of Lauren’s wedding, cutting to a scene of her and her ex, Chase (Paul Adelstein), with a mediator, having just finalized their divorce. Within the first few minutes, Landecker effectively shows an entire relationship. As an actor, she has great chemistry with Adelstein, and the performances of both go a long way toward filling in the blanks, turning Lauren and Chase into rounded characters almost immediately.
On their way out of the mediator’s office, the two are instantly back to bickering. Chase berates Lauren for smoking – he thought she’d quit, and anyway she always has trouble with lighters, it’s better if he just lights it for her. Lauren wishes Chase wouldn’t tell her how to raise her kid – he wasn’t, but she’s getting ahead of things because he was definitely going to.
Landecker is a magnetic performer, rarely a scene-stealer, but lifting up every performance around her. For the better, since For Worse has a huge supporting cast of recognizable comedians. Standouts in smaller parts include Landecker’s real-life husband Bradley Whitford, Ken Marino, and Missi Pyle.
Whitford and Marino play Dave and Rick, two guests at a wedding at which Lauren spends much of the final act of the film. Dave is the newly-divorced father of one of the brides, whose situation mirrors Lauren’s own, leading the two to instantly bond over their shared woes of being newly single during middle age. Rick, by contrast, is a sleazy party clown who gets a little too eager and a little too grabby around the party’s female guests. Pyle plays Julie, Lauren’s best friend and perfect foil, who sees Lauren’s divorce as an opportunity for her friend to make up for lost time in the dating world.
The real highlight of the film is Nico Hiraga, who plays Lauren’s younger crush and sort-of-boyfriend, Sean. Sean initially seems like a “bad boy,” Hiraga bringing a swagger and carefree attitude to a character already written as the life of the party. But Hiraga never goes from carefree to careless, or falls otherwise into the less desirable aspects of that stereotypical persona he initially seems. Rather, Sean is just a good guy, through and through. Ultimately he’s not a match for Lauren, mostly due to belonging to a different generation.
For Worse is full of funny performances by funny people, and low-stakes enough to make for easy viewing. The movie’s biggest flaw is that there isn’t more: more conflict, higher stakes, even deeper characters to explore. But on the other hand, as an uplifting and chuckle worthy romantic comedy about getting your life back together after divorce, it fills a niche in the market, for better or for worse.
Thank you to Vortex Media and Route504 for the screener.
