Linda Mendoza's Relationship Goals is one of those films that makes you wonder, "Why did it require the contributions of three screenwriters if it seems like no one in particular actually wrote it?" Something like Relationship Goals isn't so much written as plagiarized. It's a copy of a copy of a copy: an uninspired piece of work.
At first, one might feel a certain enthusiasm seeing that the protagonist, a woman named Leah Caldwell (Kelly Rowland), wants to become the first woman to host New York's top morning show (she works at Media Core). Professional ambition? Absolutely! We need more women like that, both on screen and in real life. However, I found it quite offensive that Leah doesn't feel fulfilled even after being promoted to executive producer. She still feels empty, and the reason is that she needs a man. She needs Jarrett Roy (Cliff "Method Man" Smith).
Director: Linda Mendoza
Writers: Pastor Michael ToddMichael ElliotCory Tynan
Stars: Kelly Rowland, Method Man, Robin Thede
I have nothing against people falling in love, but Leah and Jarrett have no spark, no inner life, no real chemistry. They are constructed from the scraps of other romances. Leah and Jarrett have a backstory simply because the genre demands it. And what is that backstory? That Jarrett cheated on Leah with another woman. What led him to take that step? Was he unhappy with Leah in some way? Was it a one-night stand? The film simply suggests that Jarrett was immature. The infidelity, unfortunately, is merely an excuse for the characters to argue. That's why no other details of the past are discussed in the present.
Leah has two best friends, Treese Moore (Annie Gonzalez) and Brenda Phelps (Robin Thede). The former struggles to find a boyfriend, while the latter is stuck with a man (DeVaughn Nixon) who has no plans of marriage. At one point, Treese brings Ronald (Ryan Jamaal Swain), a secretary, to her family and introduces him as her boyfriend. Why? Because she doesn't want to be judged for her marital status. Well, it turns out that it's Treese who is judging herself for her marital status. It's the kind of revelation the film dispatches in seconds.
After all, it needs to move quickly; it only has 93 minutes. Did I mention that Leah's mother is dead and that the film attempts, in some way, to connect her emotional void to grief, or something similar? It tries, yes, but obviously fails, considering the theme is only briefly mentioned with a single line and a dispensable scene in a cemetery near the end. Ask Mendoza, and he'll probably say, "I'm not trying to win an Oscar here." But does that justify Relationship Goals being so basic, so bland?
The most important question one should ask is: why take inspiration from Pastor Michael Todd's book, Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex? One assumes Mendoza found something useful there. If he learned any lessons and was trying to convey them through this project, he definitely failed. If the moral at the end is that you have to find the right man to be happy, I don't see why anyone couldn't learn that lesson from millions of other (good) romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, or Never Been Kissed. Even in those films, the characters end up with the right person.
I suppose the real intention behind Relationship Goals is to promote Todd and his book. The film acknowledges this and tries to distance itself from this accusation during an interview with Todd, where Leah herself comments that the whole thing is turning into a superficial, self-serving segment. And perhaps, by resorting to half-baked clichés, the film tries to differentiate itself from being pure promotional material (I haven't read the source material). However, the main problem persists: Relationship Goals is bad.
At times, it shows a glimmer of life, thanks to the actors, who move across the screen as if they're actually having a good time. In fact, the way Leah, played by Rowland, raises her left eyebrow when Ronald mentions he wants bagels is more expressive, funnier, and more dramatic than anything else she's given to do or say. Given how uninteresting all of this is, I can confidently say that filmmakers don't need to focus on relationship goals.
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