See You When I See You Is Too Afraid to Be Funny, Too Inert to Be Sad

"As Aaron Whistler, a comedy writer who had an extremely close, almost conspiratorial bond with his sister Leah (Kaitlyn Dever), Cooper Raiff gives basically the same performance he always gives, delivering his lines in affectless bursts. Perhaps the idea here is to depict Aaron's inability to work through his pain, but that requires a kind of charisma Raiff might not have - he doesn't really convey much of an inner life."

"The difference is particularly striking in the actor's scenes with the supremely talented Dever, whom we see in flashback-slash-dream visions. In these, we witness Leah's vibrancy, but we're also supposed to understand how tight she and Aaron were, how they were in some senses two sides of the same coin; instead, we start to suspect that Raiff is mismatched to the material."

See You When I See You follows Aaron Whistler, a comedy writer coping with the trauma of his sister Leah's suicide. The film treats grief with earnestness and directness, seeking to literalize characters' emotional turmoil. Cooper Raiff plays Aaron with affectless bursts, conveying little inner life or the charismatic deflection expected of a comedy writer. Kaitlyn Dever appears in flashback and dream sequences, radiating vibrancy and illustrating the siblings' intense bond. The film's more literal approach undermines tonal balance, often avoiding genuine humor and leaving its emotional beats feeling constrained rather than resonant.

Read at Vulture