Aahana Swrup
‘Sweethearts’ Max’s unconventional rom-com marks a directorial debut for Jordan Weiss. The film centers around two best friends, Ben and Jamie, college freshmen who are regretting their decisions to maintain long-distance relationships with their respective high school sweethearts, Claire and Simon. For the same reason, as Thanksgiving rolls around, the duo decides to partake in the age-old tradition of “Turkey dumping” their partners. However, as they return to their hometowns, the holiday’s drunkenly robust cheer hinders their initial foolproof plans.
Nevertheless, determined to cut their losses, Ben and Jamie remain committed to their breakup pact. Along the way, the two best friends unpredictably find themselves questioning their own unusually close relationship. ‘Sweethearts’ is an entertaining modern addition to the beloved rom-com genre, subverting certain tropes by taking an atypical approach in its relatable exploration of friendship and love. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Sweethearts is Partially Based on the Creator’s Real-Life Friendship
‘Sweethearts’ is an exceptional story that prioritizes its central male-female friendship in unique ways. Consequently, the grounded nature of its narrative cornerstones—from a ride-or-die friendship and inevitably doomed high school romances to clumsy breakups—plays crucial roles in cementing the film’s sense of realism. However, it also finds roots in reality through filmmaker Jordan Weiss and her co-writer Dan Brier. Ben and Jamie’s narrative is actually heavily inspired by Weiss and Brier’s real-life relationship.
Weiss and Brier became close friends after their first meeting in their early 20s. Since then, the duo have continued to remain each other’s best friends decades later, even after marrying their respective spouses. As such, with this project, the filmmaking duo aims to bring an on-screen representation of their dynamic. According to director Weiss, much of the film came from a road trip she and Brier undertook, during which they discussed their love lives in depth, diving into their past experiences.
From there, the idea emerged for Ben and Jamie’s storyline as a reimagining of Weiss and Brier’s real lives with the idea of what things would have been like if they had known each other since childhood. Therefore, the mechanics of the film’s protagonists and the dynamic between them remain inspired by reality. However, the exact experiences the on-screen best friends go through are a work of fabrication. Ultimately, ‘Sweethearts’ is fictitious but sports inspirations in real life.
Sweethearts Tackles The Reality of Male-Female Friendships
The central friendship between Ben and Jamie remains one of the defining aspects of ‘Sweethearts.’ While the bulk of the film revolves around the duo’s Thanksgiving pact of dumping their long-distance partners, the storyline eventually evolves into an exploration of Ben and Jamie’s relationship with each other. Thus, their narrative takes on the age-old uncertainty surrounding heteronormative male-female friendships. In fact, it even includes scenes from ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ in which the protagonist popularly makes a case against such friendships.
Nonetheless, ‘Sweethearts’ takes a different route and vouches for the existence of functioning platonic friendships between men and women. Through Ben and Jamie’s nuanced relationship—that remains aware of societal expectations—the story provides a compelling analysis of the same. Jordan Weiss discussed this in an interview with Decider. “For us (Weiss and Brier), in approaching this question, can men and women be friends? Dan and I are best friends.”
Weiss continued, “We’re happily married to people who are not each other. We obviously believe that men and women can be friends. What we wanted to do is tell a story with an extremely happy ending. When I look at two kids who are freshmen in college—for me—the happiest ending I can imagine for them is the time and space to learn about themselves, explore, go on adventures, make mistakes, fall in love, (and) get heartbroken.”
Sweethearts Strives For a Timeless Approach
While the central themes of ‘Sweethearts’ inherently imbue the film with relatable authenticity, Jordan Weiss further strived to enhance the story’s realism through its more visual and narrative aspects. The filmmaker and her creative team ensured that their script remained updated for the contemporary young adult audience by collaborating with their Gen-Z cast members, including lead actors Kiernan Shipka and Nico Hiraga. Furthermore, the creative department was also mindful of keeping the on-screen tale’s visuals timeless.
This was achieved through intentionally evergreen costuming. Additionally, the music associated with the project was also picked with the intention of not dating the story to any specific era. Similarly, while Weiss and Dan Brier wanted to keep the script relatable to the current youth, they stayed away from too much slang. On the other hand, Weiss and her team also wanted to ensure that the project remained in service of teen spirit. In this aspect, Weiss looked to John Hughes for inspiration, whose teen-centered films are celebrated for their authentic approach. Consequently, through a culmination of different aspects, ‘Sweethearts’ emerges as a realistic film with ties to reality.
Read More: Sweethearts: Is Densen College Real? Is Cranford High a Real High School?
