At Midnight – A Middling and Forgettable Romcom

At Midnight follows rising star Sophie Wilder (Barbaro) whose shooting her new film “Super Society 3” in an exotic filming location in Mexico with her ex-boyfriend and co-star Adam (Holm). Sophie and Adam’s relationship ended on bad terms with the former walking in on her ex with another woman which hasn’t been announced to the public yet. Upon arriving at her luxurious hotel, she quickly has an awkward run in with Alejandro (Boneta), a member of the hotel staff and soon starts running into him all over the hotel. Sophie and Alejandro quickly grow fond of each other, and sparks then begin to fly between the two. Despite the gorgeous setting and a pair of likeable stars, the film is unfortunately a very middling romcom that never really gets off the ground or goes anywhere of interest.

By far the two best things about At Midnight are the two lead performances from Boneta and Barbaro. They don’t exactly have the best script or the deepest characters to work with but they both elevate this the best they can and come out completely unscathed. Barbaro proves that she can do romance and comedy just as well as she did action in Top Gun: Maverick and she’s got a lot of charisma that she carries over from that film while Boneta is very charming and extremely likeable as he usually is. It’s just a shame they weren’t in a better movie that knew how to utilize their talents them better.

One can see exactly where both of their characters are going to end up and everything that’s going to happen along the way to them but thanks to their performances, they make the journey that much sweeter and a little more tolerable than it would’ve been without them. It also helps that they have pretty decent chemistry with each other, and viewers actually want them to end up together by the end despite the romance not being as strong as could’ve been. Nobody in the supporting cast gets a whole lot to do as this is mainly focused on the leads, but the very underrated Holm is at least having fun playing an arrogant self-centered loser who brings a lot of energy whenever he appears, while fans of comedian Whitney Cummings will be happy to see her pop up every so often in this and do her usual thing.

But for a so-called romantic comedy, this just isn’t very romantic or all that funny for that matter and it’s about as generic and bland as a modern romcoms can get. There are a few light chuckles early on when Barbaro and Boneta’s characters are first getting to know each other and the awkwardness that ensues between them but after the first act, the laughs really start to slow down and are pretty much non-existent by the time it reaches its predictable, sappy, and rushed conclusion. The leads do have decent chemistry and make for a cute couple, but you never really care about their characters outside of the actors playing them which also results in the viewer not really caring about their growing romance either. They could’ve done a lot more with this or at least created a few more amusing comedic situations especially considering the setting it takes place in, but everything is played so safe and unoriginally which makes the film feel pretty boring and dragged out despite only running 100 minutes long.

In the end, there isn’t anything overly bad in At Midnight, but it just feels like it was made really quickly for a very cheap cost and that little effort went into it outside of its leading stars. There’s definitely some enjoyable performances and sweet moments to be found in it but for the most part this is an instantly forgettable romcom that doesn’t do anything new and doesn’t contain anything to make it standout in the slightest. Only the least demanding fans of romcoms will probably enjoy this but even then, there are so many better options to watch over the Valentine’s Day weekend.

still courtesy of Paramount+

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/