What If

While the romantic comedy formula rarely updates, the rules about love, friendship and sex must adapt to the way people experience relationships today. Modern rom-coms have been obsessed with high-concept rule making involving social media, texting and most recently sex tapes inexplicably uploaded to “the Cloud”, but they’ve never resonated with the Millennial generation. Our generation has fashioned itself more self-aware, ironic and cynical to all the social norms and barriers that define our romantic lives.

“What If” may just be the first Millennial rom-com, a spiritual successor to “When Harry Met Sally”, an often insightful look at the way contemporary notions of love shape our relationships and the first big studio rom-com in a long time in which every character in the cast feels like a human being.

It starts with the simple meet-cute of Wallace and Chantry in front of a refrigerator playing with magnets. Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) has just gotten over a year-long depression over a bad break-up. Chantry (Zoe Kazan) seems perfect, and she even gives out her number, just as she mentions she has a boyfriend.

Guys know that B-word can be a death knell, and I wager all girls know it as a way to get rid of pushy guys. This is not a problem unique to Millennials, but with the world connected over the web, if that relationship is Facebook official, men err on the side of moving on rather than leave a trail that will surely get sticky.

But Chantry introduces an interesting wrinkle to the boyfriend/guy-friend dynamic: It should be easier for girls to make guy friends when they’re dating someone else since there’s no confusion, and yet that’s never the case.

Nevertheless, Wallace and Chantry try to make it work as strictly platonic friends. Chantry’s boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall) sees through Wallace a mile away, Chantry’s sister Dalia (Megan Park) is looking to the Chantry-approved Wallace as a potential rebound, and Wallace’s roommate Allan (Adam Driver) comes up with a few embarrassing ways to try and push them together.

It makes for some pleasant, even touching comedic set pieces all rom-coms need, but “What If” finds its stride in self-deprecating, witty banter and hilariously coy ways of describing the morbid, pitiful or negative. Did you know Elvis had 40 pounds of feces left in his body when he died? Wallace does. How cruel are relationships in the modern age? Dalia says she won’t even have fun sleeping with all of her ex’s friends to get back at him.

But “love is downright dirty baby. Sometimes, it’s even filthy,” says Adam Driver’s Allan. “What If” is filled with pleasant, cute touches, but it’s not quirky to the point of Kazan’s title character in “Ruby Sparks,” it’s not swimming in odd pop culture references like the latest Judd Apatow joint, and though it has a dark side, it’s not plain gross like so many rom-coms strive to be as well.

“What If” works because few rom-coms contain casts this deep and believable. Allan is the lunky alpha-male, his girlfriend Nicole (Mackenzie Davis) is the hippie chick, and Ben is the good-looking, bro of a boyfriend. That some of them are just a little bitchy, jerky and spastic as well as likeable, funny and honest makes them feel real, not just like character types.

Driver and Davis may be the film’s real stars, worthy of their own film even though “What If” gives them plenty of screen time. Driver has mastered the deadpan, rapid-fire delivery on “Girls” that makes him a natural for material like this, and Davis is straightforward, compassionate and funny in a way the girls don’t often get to play.

But it’s Radcliffe and Kazan’s wonderful chemistry that makes “What If” a charmer. They trade barbs like pros, they both reveal flaws and nuance to their characters, he potentially being too attached and she potentially afraid of commitment to her job or boyfriend, and their tender moments make for some of the movie’s best. One scene inside a dressing room has them inches apart but with the burden of respect and integrity for not cheating weighing heavy.

“What If” may have been brilliant if it didn’t lead to its foregone conclusion, but that formulaic ending will keep this a rom-com staple for generations to come.

3 ½ star