Books & Drinks (2024) Film Review
In the huge world of romantic comedies, films like Books & Drinks tend to get lost. Usually, writers are restrained by the rules of the genre that doesn’t call for many changes, except from bold takes some visionaries have. Audiences don’t exactly demand changes because rom-coms have turned into a comfort genre where changes aren’t usually welcome, and success mostly depends on chemistry between the leads, and a witty script that can give life to what’s usually an unbelievable story. In this comfort zone, some thrive, and some try. Books & Drinks comfortably stands in the middle.
Books & Drinks tells the story of David, a New Yorker who owns a very unsuccessful book store. One day he receives a call from his mother. As it turns out, his father wasn’t exactly like his mother painted him out to be. He believed he had been dead all along, but David’s mom announces he has recently passed and has left him a house in the Dominican Republic. David instantly believes he can make a profit at selling the house and heads out to the country in the Caribbean. That’s alone, without his girlfriend Raquel.
Once there, he meets Maria. The real estate executive who’s in charge of selling the house, and who immediately connects with David. However, she has a boyfriend. When things get complicated with the sale, Raquel also comes, and David is forced to make a decision: to stay in a whole new country that feels cozy, or go back to his boring life in the city.
Usually in independent films, we have a mistaken impression that if the film looks easy, it must have been easy to make. And no film is. Every experience has its ups and downs, and triumphs and difficulties. The creative vision is the last element to be sacrificed, and sometimes even that suffers from a complicated production. One thing that’s noticeable about Books & Drinks, is that it doesn’t feel like a complicated film. It’s smooth in its narrative, and characters don’t exactly twirl around in genre-bending fashion. This is a film with a single direction and it drifts towards that at a very natural pace. So perhaps, the word isn’t “easy” but “natural” and that provides the authenticity needed this time around.
The third act in Books & Drinks doesn’t exactly follow the usual structure of the genre. It’s not “someone breaks up with someone, and the ones that should have always been together, end together.” Director Geoffrey Cowper uses Josep Ciutat‘s script to provide a different outcome that feels honest and definitely not rushed. The lightweight tone of the film is kept throughout until the end when David makes his decision and it’s not what you expect. Also, Maria’s role in his decision also doesn’t feel like a random surrender of her ideals, making her the strongest character in the film. If there’s one we should root for, it’s Maria and her warm and kind smile.
Is it cheesy? Sometimes. Does it matter? Not at all. Books & Drinks never denies what it tries to be, and confidently sits in the feelgood pantheon of indie films that portray uplifting situations in ideal, cookie-cut worlds where bad things don’t happen. If you’re into films that allow you to disconnect from your mundane and gray life, this could be it.
