What are we, anyway? The new movie “Oh, Hi” dives headfirst into situationships, the newly coined word for the “gray area” in romance.
The movie follows Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) on their first getaway trip to upstate New York as a “couple” — or, at least, that’s what Iris believes them to be. Then comes the jump scare: Isaac tells Iris that he’s not looking for a relationship.
“The foundation of a situationship is not defining what you want,” Lerman told TODAY.com ahead of his appearance on TODAY with Jenna & Friends.
The beginning of the movie is likely relatable to many people in today’s dating scene, but what comes next is extreme. Isaac is chained to a bed when he tells Iris how he feels. Iris, upset after learning he doesn’t want to be with her seriously, refuses to unchain him.
Even though his character spends most of the movie stuck to a bed, Lerman said he immediately wanted to be part of the project.
“I read the script, and knew right away that this was something special, and this was something I wanted to see more than anything,” Lerman said.
Gordon, who ideated the story alongside writer and director Sophie Brooks, says she “definitely related” to the character — even if Iris’ response is questionable.
“If they don’t want to be with you, it can be the most heartbreaking thing in the world, and you’ll do anything to keep that person. So, the desperation to want to stay together, I could really connect to,” she said.
“Feeling lost and kind of manic when people aren’t honest with you and also how hard it is to find people that you really like,” Gordon said.
What Gordon and Lerman think happens at the end of ‘Oh, Hi!’
Spoilers for “Oh, HI!” continue from here.
By the end of the movie, Isaac has made his escape, but injures himself in the process. Iris and Isaac meet as the ambulance comes.
In a moment of honesty, Iris tells Isaac, “I just wish you had been honest” about his intentions. She says she was left feeling hopeless.
Gordon says this is the first moment in “Oh, Hi!” the two talk about how they really feel.
“I think there’s an understanding that both of them were not honest, and though they both f—ed up in different ways, the biggest thing that they can agree on, that they both did, was not be upfront about what they wanted,” Gordon said, reflecting on their moment of confrontation.
The film ends without a clear message of whether the pair continue to talk after this incident. Gordon says that’s on purpose: The relationship started with ambiguity and will end with it.
“How you go into something is how you leave,” Gordon said. “If you go in with it being rocky and both people not being honest and there not being clarity, then you’re going to get out of that with the same type of energy.”
As for what comes next for Iris and Isaac? The actors themselves aren’t convinced that the pair would separate, even after what they experienced.
“Logan was saying last night that he thinks that his character would have texted my character later, like, ‘Do you want to hang out?’” Gordon said.
“I think he’s going to obsessively walk her back. I don’t know if he’s fully grown from this experience, so it would have just kept going,” Lerman hypothesized.
“There’s so many possibilities of what could happen,” Lerman continued. “This could have been the life changing moment that set him on a path for healthy relationships in the future, or it could have just gone back into the cycle of toxic s— people do.”
Despite Isaac’s characterization in the film, Lerman said that his real identity is elsewhere.
“I’m way more of an Iris as a person,” Lerman said.
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