Her Side of the Bed

There’s a lot of good in Her Side of the Bed. This relationship dramedy features modern takes on relationships and sexuality. Most importantly, it also has some good jokes. What holds me back from giving an out and out positive review is its lead character. Her Side of the Bed very much falls victim to the writer of the film being too close to her fictional counterpart to have proper perspective.

Her Side of the Bed is about the relationship between two friends and roommates, Rachel and Nicole. At the start of the film, Rachel has suffered a breakup. Unfortunately, during Rachel’s relationship, Nicole sold her bed. So, the two now have to share a bed. Rachel is working on getting over her ex and goes back and forth on the idea of casual sex. After a night in which both women take molly, they sleep together. This does not result in a relationship. However, adding a sexual element, even briefly to their relationship upsets the balance. Rachel and Nicole’s friendship begins to crumble as they drift apart as people.

First of all, big shout out for including the legendary romance trope of “there was only one bed.” Not only does Her Side of the Bed include this, but the take on this trope is really fun and chaotic. Nicole exchanges Rachel’s bed for an army jacket. That’s very good and funny. It is a shame that while the only one bed thing is an inciting incident, it loses relevance as the film goes on. There was a missed opportunity to cover Rachel and Nicole sharing a bed once their relationship starts to drift near the end of the movie.

I also like the very modern take on sex and sexuality in Her Side of the Bed. I don’t know how to sexually classify Rachel or Nicole. Bi-curious, I guess. Both are predominantly heterosexual but obviously not so much that they don’t experiment. And it’s not like their one night together is something they regret. There is a very funny moment the day after where, for about 30 seconds, Rachel and Nicole try on romance with each other. Then, Nicole opens her mouth and says something stupid and it’s a great record scratch moment. The romance immediately dissolves. Sex doesn’t necessitate romance nor does it necessarily change the relationship. Her Side of the Bed covers this really well. Their night together brought up some cracks in the relationship but nothing that might not have happened anyway.

The issue here is that one of the leads is not as strong as the other; in both character and performance. Nicole is the more interesting character. She’s messy but funny and cool and has great charisma as an actress. I unfortunately can’t say the same about Rachel. Rachel’s character is the lead yet least interesting character in the film. It’s one of those films of a bunch of more interesting and funny secondary characters orbiting around a boring centre. Everyone is always readily available to give Rachel support or plot development. This also leads to Nicole being shafted in the last act. What should have been a mutual friendship breakup ends up with most of the blame being placed on Nicole.

Part of the problem here is that Nicole and Rachel are played by the writers of the film, Bryn Woznicki and Chelsea Morgan. I didn’t notice this with Woznicki’s performance. I did with Morgan’s. Rachel feels too much like a real person. The semi-autobiographical elements of the character loom too large. The problem with playing a character you’ve written to be based on you is that you can get too close. That happened here with Rachel specifically. Rachel needed to be a bigger character as this is a comedy film. But her portrayal in the film is realistic in a bad way. She’s not interesting nor over the top enough to warrant the lead role.

Despite this, I do applaud Her Side of the Bed for having some good ideas and especially some good jokes. There’s some funny supporting characters and ongoing jokes. There’s also a very funny bit in which Nicole and Rachel watch Dogtooth on a pseudo-date. That’s a great choice for a bad movie to watch on a date! Even a friendship date! While I can’t outright give tHer Side of the Bed a positive rating, I do think the film shows a lot of potential. There are a lot of moments in the film I enjoyed and that were relatable to me as a fellow millennial who’s seen Dogtooth.

Overall rating: 5.5/10

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