In the opening moments of I Don’t Understand You, a laugh-a-minute comedy that premiered March 8 during this year’s SXSW, stars Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells ask themselves a deceptively complicated question: Would you do anything for your child? It’s a query that most parents have probably pondered at one point or another. One hopes the immediate answer is “yes,” but if you want to get wacky with the hypothetical circumstances surrounding the question, that response might not come easily. But prospective parents Dom (Kroll) and Cole (Rannells) brush off their wandering minds, continuing the video they’re recording for a mother-to-be (Amanda Seyfried) whose baby they hope to adopt. This well-to-do couple has it pretty easy. What’s the wildest thing that they could have to do for their child?
Unsurprisingly, that fateful question colors the increasingly wacky events of I Don’t Understand You, which has all the makings of a classic screwball comedy, right down to its fairly simple premise. Dom and Cole are about to celebrate their 10th anniversary with a trip to Italy, which will hopefully be their last vacation before they welcome their first child. (As victims of adoption fraud, they’re trying to keep their hopes from getting too high this time around.) But when their getaway takes an unexpectedly morbid turn, the couple is forced to prove to themselves just how desperately they want to be fathers, and make it back to the United States unscathed.
While the title of I Don’t Understand You directly refers to the language barrier that Cole and Dom experience on their Italian vacay, it’s also a wink to how couples are forced to work together in the most dire of situations. For all of the time the movie spends mining humor from linguistic obstacles, it’s a miracle that it doesn’t veer into questionably xenophobic territory. But the film, directed and co-written by husbands David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano, is far too smart to fall prey to that cringey trap. I Don’t Understand You stays one step ahead of its audience at every turn, armed and ready with unexpected gags and memorably biting dialogue that repeatedly quell suspicions about whether or not it can pull off its big narrative swings.
For any fellow gay guys out there doubting Kroll’s ability to effectively match his gay co-star’s romantic chemistry, fear not: Rannells and Kroll are a match made in heaven. It’s evident from the jump that these two, who have spent the better part of the last decade working together on Big Mouth, know and understand each other. Not only are Kroll and Rannells a believable couple, but they even seem, at times, spiritually connected, encouraging each other to take a joke farther or deliver a line even more heedlessly. That go-for-broke energy is precisely the kind of spirit that so many comedies are missing these days. While I Don’t Understand You doesn’t exactly test viewers’ limits, it’s certainly not a movie that plays it safe, either.
That much is clear from the blood that drips out of an overhead compartment and onto Cole’s crisp collared shirt when he and Dom board their flight to Italy—well, their first flight. Like any couple, one will inevitably complain that they could’ve found a direct flight to avoid layovers. Throw some bodily fluids into the mix, and the tension does not bode well for what’s supposed to be a relaxing getaway. But Dom and Cole are determined to make the best of it, taking a friend of Dom’s father, Daniele (Paolo Romano), up on a prepaid anniversary dinner that he promises will be the best and most authentic Italian cuisine they’ll ever taste. Given the rocky start to their trip, Daniele’s casual warning to be careful on their journey to the restaurant seems almost hostile. But who are they to turn down some world-class pizza?
Despite Craig and Crano’s inclination to repeatedly warn viewers that something bad is yet to come, I Don’t Understand You makes a thrilling meal out of its many curveballs. I’ll avoid too many spoilers, but being mistaken for business partners instead of husbands is the least lethal drama in store for this couple. But Crano and Craig are wise to remind us that there’s a reason Dom and Cole are so incensed by the increasingly startling events of their night: The couple has a child to get back to. The film’s script dexterously combines Cole and Dom’s madcap race to fix their escalating list of crimes with the follies of parenthood. There is no shortage of brilliant one-liners to pluck, but, “You weren’t paying attention in CPR for infants?” is an instant all-timer.
Kroll and Rannells volley these sneers like they’re completely extemporaneous. There’s a naturalism to their dialogue that extends to the film’s whole screenplay. Though the tensions are quickly ratcheting, the film’s stars ground the movie in a necessary level of believability. (Thank consulting producer Amanda Knox for that—yes, really.) That sense of authenticity is critical, especially when Dom and Cole finally do make it to this mythic restaurant, and things rapidly become far more outrageous than expected. Kroll is notably great, offering a performance that is imbued with the uninhibited comedic style we’ve come to expect, as well as a much softer side than audiences have previously seen from the actor.
At a brisk 90-and-change minutes, I Don’t Understand You doesn’t overstay its welcome, nor do its many jests at the phonetic overlap between Italian and English. For a film that bases so much of its plot on misunderstanding a language, Craig and Crano constantly find new and clever ways to modify the punchline. The result is a riotous climax that will play as well in theaters as it does in living rooms, depending on what kind of distribution the film picks up. But for a movie that is as hysterical as it is nimbly paced, it deserves to be seen amidst a crowd. After all, there is no language more universal than laughter, and I Don’t Understand You is positively fluent.
