Movies are often told from exactly one perspective and that one perspective can be misleading. You don’t notice so much when the film is comedy because -theoretically- comedy is universal. But sometimes comedy comes with a body count and we have to treat any POV with a little scrutiny, like in today’s film, I Don’t Understand You.
When any narrative comes with a body count, you are required to ask, “Who is telling the story?” Why? Because Jame Gumb has a slightly different perspective on what happened to the missing women than Clarice Starling does. Do I think two gay men set out on a murder rampage? No … ? But if they’re telling the story, one needs to ask the question.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannels) are an adorable gay couple. They’re both kinda docile and doofy, but seem to love one another and revel in their fantasy of being dads. Hard to dislike men who *just* want to be dads – or so I thought when the film began.
As they approach their anniversary, these two are trying once again to adopt a baby. They are as yet, childless. It is still extremely difficult for two gay males to acquire a child – I imagine it’s a little like playing the lottery, but what the Hell would I know? All I truly know is that it cannot be done biologically, and if can’t be done biologically, that means you are going to need third party compliance, which may in turn require a lot of patience and a lot of money.
The baby mama here is Amanda Seyfried, who is 39, simply the wrong age for a woman giving up a baby for adoption. Not that it can’t happen; it’s simply the wrong age. This story is more believable with a 17-year-old pregnant woman. That is minor stuff.
What’s actually going on here is one anniversary trip to Italy, one bad set of directions, a whole bunch of misunderstanding, and, eventually, a whole set of corpses.
Cole and Dom have been gifted an authentic romantic Italian dinner, but get stuck on the wrong road, which leads to the wrong driveway, which leads to the wrong pothole, which 
leads to a stuck car and a creepy Italian-only AAA guy. Except the AAA guy is really the owner of the driveway, which should have been clear to Dom and Cole at least by the time he shoots a deer on the road while transporting them back to ????
This is a classic “comedy of errors” play where two guys who don’t speak Italian make bad decisions almost entirely out of lack-of-communication. It’s difficult to love material of this nature because once likable people start doing very unlikable things, they become much less likable. This isn’t rocket science. Once a guy takes a knife and plunges it into another guy, you stop thinking about what a wonderful father he’d make.
Maybe it’s just me.
I really got behind the LGBTQ+ nature of this film, but found the black comedy here a huge turn-off. I kinda left I Don’t Understand You thinking exactly that thought about the film: I don’t understand you, or, more specifically, I don’t quite understand why we think these guys deserve a happy ending after this fateful night in Italy.
Two lovable men, Dom and Cole
List “fatherhood” as their ultimate goal
Then this, hard to swallow:
Where they went, murder follow
And my sympathy proved difficult to cajole
Rated R, 97 Minutes
Director: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano
Writer: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano
Genre: Another LGBTQ+ milestone?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Anybody who has “accidentally killed a guy?”
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “Is this funny?”
