Netflix’s Just Say Yes- Don’t Trust the Women of Utrecht

Just Say Yes is yet another Netflix romantic comedy that feels like it should have been a period piece. It’s supposedly set in current times based on the obstacles that its protagonist faces and the views on relationships that different characters have. This is a genre that is still firmly devoted to supporting traditional values and telling women that they’ll be miserable if they remain single, but this film occasionally flirts with being subversive. While its thorny and aloof characters were intriguing, it didn’t last as wasn’t quite as weird as it should have been.

Just Say Yes is about Lotte (Cabau), a Dutch television producer who has to deal with the fact that life will never match up with her romantic fantasies. Her long-term relationship with news anchor Alex (Westendorp) has fizzled out after he dumps her a few days before their wedding is scheduled to take place. She believes that she will never find love again, but when she meets Chris (Bakkum), she starts to develop romantic feelings for a different man. He is one of her colleagues and they frequently clash over important decisions that have to be made in the workplace. Her attention is diverted by the tumultuous love life of her sister Estelle (Noortje Herlaar), a social media influencer. Estelle wants to marry John (Edwin Jonker) but seems too career focused to serve as a good wife. Lotte has to spread herself thinly in order to contend with all of these different obstacles and finds herself more stressed than ever. She is also daunted by the prospect of allowing Alex back into her heart. He appears to genuinely want to be with her but Lotte feels as though she can’t trust him because of their past together. 

The film does flirt with arguing that being single could be fun for those with a great social life and who don’t feel insecure about themselves. Of course, this is a romantic comedy so we know that it can’t get away with endorsing that message. It has an easier time when it decides to fashion Chris as a vain, self centred misanthrope who isn’t willing to open himself up to his love interest. He is written as somebody who lacks self awareness and he doesn’t exactly go through a character arc. It’s fascinating to have a story where only one of the protagonists evolves and her love interest has to move around her. I’m sure that Robert McKee would criticise that decision and it does mean that this is not an emotionally wrenching experience. It remains light and airy throughout and you never feel like you’re going to die if they don’t get together. In the end, that’s not a bad thing.

Just Say Yes was also full of weirdly specific tropes that seem to pop up in every Dutch romantic comedy. Firstly, there is a fickle, selfish who just so happens to be from Utrecht. For some reason, screenwriters from this country seem to have it out for women from this specific city. They’ll take any opportunity to slot in a deplorable floozie who takes out her wrath on innocent little Dutch boys from Rotterdam and Amsterdam. It’s always funny whenever they make sure to reference the fact that this stock character is from Utrecht as it further reinforces how this genre can be formulaic in the strangest ways. 

When it comes to Just Say Yes, that’s about it. Its biggest issue is that it feels so terribly dated. It wants to feature some commentary on the way that women are treated in the workplace and the decline in quality of news journalism during the 21st century. On the first front, the film tries to tackle the way that weather girls can be sexually objectified instead of being treated like experts on meteorology. Lotte’s lecherous boss is seen directing the new weather girl to bend over like she’s posing for Maxim magazine. Lotte is rightly disgusted by this practice but the film never follows through in explaining how you could put an end to this trend or why people respond to scantily clad bimbos. It tells us that this is bad but doesn’t go any further than that. 

Just Say Yes also doesn’t deal with the fact that traditional news media outlets can seem very outdated by modern standards and they are seriously threatened by social media and YouTube. It would seem to be easy to set up a conflict between old and new forms of media in this film, because Estelle is a social media influencer on the up and up and Lotte is the producer of a struggling news station. We could have seen how people have shorter attention spans nowadays and want to access trash entertainment rather than grappling with serious news. The film could have asked questions about whether anything has really changed and reflected on the day to day interaction that the average Dutch person has with the media. The scope of the film is never really expanded and we are left with something that is shallow and unsatisfying. It is also worth noting that it features one of those irritating storytelling devices that did not need to be there. The film could easily have been shorter if this framing device had been removed and it would not have been any less funny.

In the end, Just Say Yes does not have the pizzazz of Squared Love and it is a cause for concern regarding Holland’s other entries into the Netflix library.

still courtesy of Netflix

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Zita Short

I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.