There are several good aspects to Meg Ryan's new movie "What Happens Later". During the pandemic Ryan collaborated with two other screenwriters and wrote a screenplay about a man and a woman, meeting in a regional airport after they broke up over 25 years earlier. It took courage for Ryan to create a screenplay where there are only two actors, Willa, played by Meg Ryan, and Bill, played by David Duchovny. This entire movie is a conversation inside an airport that is shutting down due to a major snowstorm where the two characters finally figure out what really went wrong with their relationship so long ago. The only other time in recent memory that any movie has been about only two characters and a 2-hour conversation between them is "Before Sunrise", 1995 and "Before Sunset", 2004, starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke.
Around the end of the 75% mark, there is a major revelation about a misunderstanding between Bill and Willa is finally revealed. Without this one misunderstanding 25 years earlier Bill and Willa might never have broken up. The message of this best part of this film “in a relationship, communication is everything”.
Most of the dialogue in this very unusual film is good, but some other parts do not work, including the airport intercom worker who at times has an ongoing conversation with Bill and Willa. This idea of having a conversation with the airport intercom did not work and reduced the realism of the story.
The acting with Duchovny and Ryan is very good throughout this film is very good and after a long layoff and a Hollywood career high and low like Ryan has lived through, it is good to see her back in a movie again. I hope, despite the relatively low ratings for this film, that Ryan can make a movie comeback.
Unfortunately, the Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is a low 51%, with my rating 70% and a marginal recommendation, mainly for the courage to make this film and the dialogue.
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