Charlie Day and Jenny Slate Are the Perfect Rom-Com Couple in Amazon’s ‘I Want You Back’

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, aka the perfect weekend to cuddle up and watch a predictable but comforting romantic comedy. Amazon Prime has you covered on that front with I Want You Back, a new rom-com that began streaming today, starring Charlie Day and Jenny Slate.

Directed by Jason Orley, with a screenplay from Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, I Want You Back isn’t exactly revolutionizing the genre. Instead, the film relies on the comedic talent of Slate and Day to elevate the script—and they do. The plot set-up is simple: Peter (Day) and Emma (Slate) meet by chance in the stairwell of their office building, where they have both gone to cry after being dumped.  The two bond over their broken hearts and their fondness for screaming along to Alanis Morrissette at karaoke. They agree to call each other when they feel sad—they’re each other “sadness sisters”—and become friends. But when they find out that both of their exes are seeing new people, they hatch a plan to break up these new couples and win their former lovers (Gina Rodriguez and Scott Eastwood) back.

It’s the kind of ridiculous, contrived situation that is the bread and butter of romantic comedies, and Day and Slate make it all the more enjoyable with their easy chemistry and knack for comedic timing. Slate—who’s proven time and time again she’s the queen of awkward, relatable protagonists in films like Obvious Child and Landline—is an endearing, lovable mess as Emma. She may be 32, but she’s still figuring out her life, and she still occasionally has to tell herself, “You’re an adult in a workplace. Get it together!” (A line that Slate delivered, through tears, with such gusto that it made me laugh out loud.) And, somewhat inexplicably, at one Slate point belts out the entirety of “Suddenly, Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors. Slate absolutely crushed it, and I loved every minute of it.

Day, meanwhile, is best known for his antics on the long-running FX sitcom, It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, where he plays an illiterate, unhinged, but oddly lovable bar owner who shouts everything he says, huffs glue, and eats cat food. Though he occasionally slips into his It’s Always Sunny shtick—like when Peter and Emma get trashed at the karaoke bar and Peter shouts about how excited he is to “get on all the apps”—Day’s performance in I Want You Back is proof he can shine as a more grounded, sane character than Charlie Kelly. As Peter, he is gentle and eager to please. When Peter unintentionally upsets Emma by professing his love for pie—Emma’s ex’s new girlfriend owns a pie shop—he rushes to clarify, “There are very limited options when it comes to pie.” It’s not a slam-dunk joke on its own, but Day’s instinct for his character’s forced casualness makes it hysterical.

In the end, I Want You Back goes exactly where you’d expect: Emma and Peter realize they are far more compatible with each other than they ever were with their exes. But first, they fail to communicate, they fight, they hurt each other, and then—just when it seems all is lost—an unintentionally romantic and unbearably sweet gesture saves the day. It’s an adorable conclusion to an adorable movie carried by its great cast. If Charlie Day and Jenny Slate want to star in another five rom-coms together, I definitely wouldn’t say no.

Watch I Want You Back on Amazon Prime