In Brian Crano and David Craig's twisted queer comedy, two expectant parents plan an exotic anniversary trip, misinterpreting cultural differences in ways that could seriously jeopardize their adoption plans.
Wandering through Italy as supporting characters in the second season of "The White Lotus," wealthy gay couple Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells) have decided the world is against them. As Americans, they live in a time in a country where they can legally marry, adopt, and do virtually everything straight people do; but they're also old enough to remember when that wasn't the case, so they anticipate rejection and homophobia at every turn. They're prepared for the worst, and somehow they attract it.
Directors: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano
Writers: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano
Stars: Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells, Morgan Spector
Loosely inspired by filmmakers Brian Crano and David Craig's bumpy road to parenthood, the biting black comedy "I Don't Understand You" portrays a period in Dom and Cole's relationship when everything seems to be going well... until suddenly it doesn't. While celebrating their anniversary in Italy, the couple receives news that the baby they've tried so hard to conceive (an adoption has already been thwarted) is about to be born. An old family friend organizes an exclusive dinner for them at a secluded restaurant. And so on.
As the holidays unfold, what began as a cheerful "Eat, Go Wild, Love" story takes a grim turn. Suddenly, the bodies are piling up, and the couple doesn't know if they've dodged a hate crime or if they've perpetrated one against their hosts, who could hardly be kinder. And yet, they stab the air with knives and say things like, "You're going to be a dey-ud." If you've been stalked your whole life (as Dom and Cole feel), it's easy to misinterpret those signals. And because they're unfamiliar with the local culture and language, things often escalate at breakneck speed.
Objectively speaking, Dom and Cole are terrible people (in ways that revealing them here would ruin the film). In any case, "I Don't Understand You" isn't concerned with how these two might fare in a court of law. Kroll and Rannells play the couple with a kind of "us against the world" conviction that draws the audience to their side, even when it's not always clear whether their panic attacks and small displays of public affection are meant to seem cute or embarrassing.
Like their protagonists, the writers and directors are also married, which means the underlying anxieties are presumably autobiographical, if exaggerated. That's one of the reasons the film works: the situation spirals out of control for Dom and Cole, but the underlying thread feels real. These imperfect parents-to-be want a baby more than anything in the world. That motivation trumps everything else the world throws at them, from misunderstandings they choose to interpret as microaggressions—like the hotel clerk who can't understand why they booked the honeymoon suite and makes a big show of pushing the beds apart—to more explicit threats.
On the way to their dinner reservation, the couple drives their rental car down a private driveway and gets stuck in a ditch. When the grumpy landowner shows up with a shotgun, they assume the worst. It doesn't help that they haven't learned Italian (Dom tried Duolingo, but can barely communicate). From their faces, we can guess what they're thinking: They were about to become parents, and now they're going to end up dead or set free somewhere in Italy.
Luckily, before the alarmist couple has time to react, the gruff stranger drops them off at the restaurant. Perhaps the locals aren't as hostile as they imagined. At this point, co-directors Crano and Craig calibrate the tension so things can go either way. Dom and Cole are immediately captivated by rustic restaurateur Francesca ("White Lotus" veteran Eleonora Romandini), though their imaginations begin to get the better of them, misinterpreting their knife-wielding hostess and her macho son (Morgan Spector) as potential threats.
Tonally, "I Don't Understand You" has the twisted, cautious vibe of classic Danny DeVito films ("Ruthless People" and "The War of the Roses" come to mind). But the script's cynicism is mostly superficial. After all, a pregnant stranger (Amanda Seyfried, who also starred in Crano's short film "Dog Food," appearing here via a series of video calls) generously plans to gift them her fetus. And Francesca seems excited to welcome a gay couple, who represents a happiness her own son never experienced. If only Dom and Cole could speak her language, or read the subtitles that show the audience what they're missing.
Instead, their fears are brought to the fore. This part of the film, where cross-cultural miscommunication spirals into chaos, doesn't quite work. The filmmakers acknowledge that gay people raised in less tolerant times carry a certain wariness wherever they go, like a form of PTSD. But the farce feels forced, to the point that a less extreme account of the directors' anniversary trip to Italy—one without the body count—might have been more effective. The film frames the couple's actions as a sign of how much they want to be parents. That they're allowed to be not just imperfect, but completely unhinged, is a sign of how far things have come.
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