Parents' Guide to Someone Like You

This faith-based drama is earnest but has some off-putting behavior and lacks romantic chemistry. The story in Someone Like You feels like it would have been better served on television than on the big screen. London and Dawson have a strong, bantery friendship, even though that relationship is explored in only the first quarter of the movie. Once London dies and Dawson starts his obsessive search for her possible IVF sibling, the story glosses over major red flags—like how he has no legal rights to that kind of confidential information, or how him trailing Andi at work for an entire day is stalkerish behavior. The screenplay does include one acknowledgement of the fact that Dawson's instant connection to Andi could seem strange (his business partner says "it's pretty weird"). But Andi is unbelievably dismissive of her Nashville boyfriend (Austin Robert Russell), who was on the verge of proposing—and she's awful to her parents. It's hard to cheer for a romance that seems rooted in grief, constant proximity, and instalove.

Yes, there are some sweet, emotional scenes between Andi and her biological parents, played with appropriate nuance by Collins and Reeves. But for the most part, Andi's motivations are hard to understand after a while, and there are definitely mixed messages about the role of adoptive and biological families in an adult child's life. Other aspects of the story also require so much suspension of disbelief that they further distract from an already cringey romantic premise. Confirmed believers may enjoy how centered the story is in Christian faith, but non-Christians might be puzzled by why nearly every single person in this story is a churchgoer, with the odd exception of a bitter, awkward single older woman who rants to whomever will listen about how human men don't mate for life, like certain animals. Bottom line? This one is only worth watching if you're already a devoted fan of Kingsbury's romances.