“You could be loved by me!”

Justin’s rating: Seriously, why hasn’t anyone HEARD of this movie?!

Justin’s review: There was a time before I met Mrs. Justin when I figured the only chance I had to find true love was some sort of wacky and improbable situation only found in romcoms. So yeah, judge me if you must, but I would’ve watched Happy Together and think, “I bet my college will accidentally assign me a gorgeous female roommate who’ll eventually fall in love with me!”

The odds of my life were never great, but it was fun throwing those mental dice at the universe.

Back in the year-and-a-half period when Patrick Dempsey (Loverboy) was speed-running every romcom he possibly could, he had a fling with Helen Slater (Supergirl).* And who’s that peeking out from behind the cameo bushes of this film to spy on them? Why, it’s an insanely young Brad Pitt, just Pitting it up as he is wont to do! Maybe we can squint and pretend that this is a prequel to Fight Club.

Twenty-going-on-65 college student Chris (Dempsey) heads off to UCLA, where he’s assigned a guy named Alex as a roommate. But UH OH, Alex is actually Alexandra (Slater), a wild party girl!** What a wacky situation! One little trip down to the registrar should straighten this out, but movie coincidence says “no” to that, and they’re forced to live together for the semester.

Obviously, being stuck in a living situation with Helen Slater or Patrick Dempsey would’ve been every ’80s teen’s dream come true, but Chris’s rectal insect acts as if it’s a prison sentence in Shawshank. Granted, Alex is a little too unhinged and he’s a little too uptight, but we know that this Odd Couple scenario is going to help them both in the end. And chances are they’ll fall in love rather than kill each other.

These are fun roles for Slater and Dempsey to inhabit, and I’m a little at a loss as to why this is basically a forgotten movie. It’s quite good! Their characters are pretty likable, and Happy Together has the added bonus of portraying college life outside of the antics of a rebellious frat house. Kids go to class (several times!), party, and get up to silly, impulsive stunts. There’s even a weird guy named Gooseflesh who goes around the place with a mannequin that he pretends is his girlfriend.

There’s nothing here that I couldn’t see coming, but I don’t care. Chris learns to loosen up, Alex gets a bit more grounded, and the two gradually fall into each other’s orbit. I love that Alex actually likes Chris as a friend and goes to him for advice and play. This isn’t a “they both hate each other until they don’t” situation. It’s more of a “they’re not attracted to each other until, one day, they are.” I got some flashes of When Harry Met Sally.

Romcoms come down to two things: chemistry and comedy. Happy Together has both, and plenty of it. Slater is so effusive and charming (and boasting gigantic beautiful eyes) that it’s not hard to imagine why she’s so irresistible, and Dempsey is so casually cool that you can see why he had tenure in the entertainment industry. And while this might not be constantly laugh-out-loud funny, it is funny and even surprisingly thoughtful.

Unlike a lot of romcoms, this movie splits itself in half between the two as friends and the pair as a romantic couple. We get to watch them grow in this relationship and in their understanding of who they themselves are. We get to meet characters who might seem one-dimensional at first but show some hidden depths. I know, I was surprised too.

Give it a chance. Please. At the very worst, it’ll be a big dousing of late-80s aesthetic to brighten your week, and that’s not nothing. But you might find something that could make you… happy.

*Don’t tell me that Loverboy and Supergirl wouldn’t have been the highest-grossing movie of the ’80s if it had happened.

**If this was made in the 2000s, we would’ve labeled her as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

Intermission!

• This only made 75 grand worldwide, hence its obscurity
• And now a theme song that sounds like late-night Cinemax smoochies are happening in the next room over
• “We’re ready to roll… Chris” that name tag cracked me up
• Writers don’t fly, they ride busses? Bet that thing didn’t even have wifi in 1989. How would you connect to the internet on your smartphone to watch YouTube?
• 1989 lesbians have huge earrings. Like, massive.
• Riding on the front grill of a car seems unsafe
• I love that college movie trope where our main character is moving into the dorm but everyone else on the entire campus seems like they’ve been there for weeks and weeks.
• A kiddie wading pool and slide are essential elements to any party dorm room
• He pipe smokes? What is he, 65? And he’s chomping on it in class!
• “Is there something wrong with me?” “Yes, your sex.”
• The guy — Gooseflesh — with the mannequin begs for an explanation
• “I bet you’ve never seen yourself naked before.”
• The pool of punch
• “Alex, you’re violating RULE THREE!”
• Alex has a date with Philip the poet: “Is he published?”
• Eating dinner at a supermarket (check out all of those old packaging and labels!)
• “He collects cars, he collects paintings, and last year he collected a 25-year-old girlfriend.”
• Alex’s wild motorcycle getup
• Making out with a mannequin clears the table
• Gooseflesh calling Chris “Chris Chris” made me smile every time
• “I bet you’re the kind of kid who never got dirty when he was little.”
• “Do you want to get dirty with me?”
• Live with a woman, you’re going to have to endure posters of hunks on the walls
• “You’re a stick. A cardboard cutout.”
• And now an out-of-nowhere musical number
• The list of rules on the wall with lipstick kisses all over them
• “You think this is a good color for me?”
• They get a LOT of mileage out of that little plastic pool
• I remember those same outdoor UCLA stairs from TAG! The Assassination Game. Or maybe Gotcha!
• “I’m living my life backwards. I’m more of an adult now than I’m going to be in my 40s.”
• Brandy is a good listener.