Parents' Guide to About Fate

This fun, frothy (if formulaic) romcom benefits from charming leads with adorable chemistry on their sweet journey toward happily ever after. Roberts, no stranger to romcoms, is believable as Margot, a Breakfast at Tiffany's-loving New Englander who misguidedly believes that Kip is going to propose, when he really wants to break up. And Mann is ideally cast as an "adorkable" love interest who's earnest without being bland, intelligent without being a snob, and also ridiculously attentive. As is nearly always the case with the genre, the filmmakers portray both characters' other partners as gorgeous but vapid and clearly not the main characters' true loves. This isn't a romcom built on nuance; Kip and Clementine are pretty much the worst, and the actors playing them know how to lean into their pretty but petty roles.

Sitcom veterans Wendie Malick and Cheryl Hines add deadpan mom energy and humor as Griffin's and Margot's mothers, respectively, and Robertson, who could have just as easily played Margot, stands out as Margot's nervous bride of a sister. The scenes with Roberts, Hines, and Robertson exchanging mother-daughter-sister banter are a highlight, while the sequence of Griffin getting drunk at a Russian bathhouse with his law school bros is a bit cringey (as is the conceit of how the main characters meet for the second time). Though this isn't the sort of romcom moviegoers are likely to turn to year after year for comfort and joy, it's worth a watch to see the cast and the funny wedding sequence in the third act.