‘Your Place or Mine’ review: No sparks fly in this rom-com

If you decide to settle in and watch ‘Your Place or Mine’ to see the sparks fly between Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, you’ll be initially disappointed.

Hyderabad: If you decide to settle in and watch ‘Your Place or Mine’ to see the sparks fly between Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, you’ll be initially disappointed. They’re not in the same room until the last 12 minutes.

The premise of this particular Netflix rom-com is two old friends switching homes for a week and snapping each other out of their ruts. Might they also fall in love?

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In this one, Witherspoon and Kutcher play opposites — he’s a rich consultant who lives in a chic but chilly New York apartment; she’s an earthy and protective single mom to a 13-year-old boy in Los Angeles. They hooked up 20 years ago but decided friendship was the better path.

These two talk every day, forcing the filmmakers to spend a fortune on split screens. It’s an intimate relationship over two decades as each supports and encourages the other.

A last-minute emergency triggers the film’s central action: Witherspoon needs to fly to New York but her childcare main option flakes, so Kutcher’s character decides to go to Los Angeles as backup. They find themselves in each other’s homes, getting to know each other’s friends and generally shaking things up.

Written and directed by Aline Brosh McKenna, ‘Your Place or Mine’ is cute and light from a creator known more for satires like ‘Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’.

The film allows Witherspoon and Kutcher to show off their naturally funny sides, especially when they’re fishes out of water. But many of the scenes drag on and sometimes the exposition is chalky.

Speaking of songs, the producers must have forked over tons of cash to the estate of Ric Ocasek (of The Cars fame). The film’s soundtrack could double as a greatest-hits album.

The film builds to — finally! — a scene when Witherspoon and Kutcher are in the same zip code and a nice flipping of the traditional rom-com airport scene on its head. That’s when the film answers the question can men and women just be friends with a strong: “Uh, barf.”