Review: Life Partners

Paige (Gillian Jacobs) and Sasha (Leighton Meester) are longtime best friends who indulge in staged road rage confrontations, weekly viewings of America's Next Top Model, shopping, and hanging out with their circle of friends. Both about to turn 29, they're both single but ready to mingle, and find dates via online dating sites.

For Sasha, there's the ballbusting Trace (Kate McKinnon), who hilariously thinks everyone recognises her from her job on To Catch a Predator. For Paige, who wishes to meet someone she likes as much as Sasha, there's Tim (Adam Brody), a straitlaced dermatologist fond of wearing slogan tees and spouting moving quotes. Sparks don't exactly fly, but Paige is attracted to his representation of stability and his willingness to cede control to her.

As Paige settles more and more into couplehood, she has less and less time to focus on her friendship with Sasha, who feels increasingly abandoned. A birthday weekend has celebrant Sasha wishing they could turn back the clock - when they were 21, life seemed easier and they spent more time together. Nothing's changed, Paige consoles, though their planned evening of playing Girl Talk and drinking pink wine is interrupted by an urgent text from Tim.

Written by director Susanna Fogel and Joni Lefkowitz, Life Partners is an often affecting look at how fragile even the most solid of friendships can be. Though Tim's presence leads to the first crack in the foundation, it's Sasha's relationship with Vanessa (Abby Elliott) that truly shakes it to the core. Paige, the more responsible of the duo and used to getting her own way, tries to be supportive but cannot mask her disapproval - not just of Vanessa but of the aimlessness in which Sasha lives her life. Sasha, meanwhile, takes Paige's conservative, entitled nature to task. It was inevitable that their friendship would change if either of them found a partner, but Sasha points out that Paige still has someone to talk to at two in the morning. Nothing has changed for Paige.

While Jacobs and Meester shine with their fully-fledged portrayals, most of the other players are saddled with less layered characters. Brody, Meester's real-life husband, has yet to show any skills other than playing The O.C.'s Seth Cohen (sorry, it's true). Mark Feuerstein is corralled into a wholly unnecessary subplot involving Paige's refusal to acknowledge her responsibility for denting his car. Only Gabourey Sidibe distinguishes herself from the supporting cast as Jen 1.0, the one relatively sane person amongst the otherwise caricaturish coterie of girlfriends.

Life Partners

Directed by: Susanna Fogel

Written by: Susanna Fogel, Joni Lefkowitz

Starring: Leighton Meester, Gillian Jacobs, Adam Brody, Gabourey Sidibe, Beth Dover, Abby Elliott, Kate McKinnon, Mark Feuerstein