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Many of us have that one childhood friend—the friendship that everyone expected would eventually turn into something more. In the Netflix original rom-com Always Be My Maybe, a couple of those old friends reunite 16 years later to find that their lives have gone in very different directions.
Always Be My Maybe returns home to San Francisco with Sasha Tran (Ali Wong), a celebrity chef who’s in town to open her latest restaurant. As she’s moving into her rental home, she runs into her old childhood friend, Marcus (Randall Park), who’s working for his dad’s heating and air-conditioning business. Sasha and Marcus haven’t spoken to each other since one awkward night years ago, so their reunion is equally clumsy. But as they both deal with the highs and lows of their own relationships, they gradually begin to slip back into their old friendship.
Just like these characters and their decades-old relationship, Always Be My Maybe is awkward but lovable. It’s an enjoyable romantic comedy about love and friendship and trying to figure out where you’re really meant to be—and about doing things that scare you to get there.
Grown-up Sasha and Marcus definitely make an unlikely pair. She’s tough and driven and completely uptight—a single-minded businesswoman who still has just a hint of that lonely teenager with braces. He, meanwhile, never really grew up. He’s still living with his widowed dad, still working for the family business, still playing in the same band in the same dingy club. She dates the rich and famous and dines at the hippest restaurants; he dates a dreadlocked Asian hippie and dines on Vienna sausages. And that, of course, is part of the pair’s charm. They’re so different, so unlikely, that it makes the ups and downs of their relationship all the more entertaining, while the easygoing chemistry between the two stars makes it all feel natural.
Admittedly, there are times when the awkwardness is just a little too awkward. The characters’ will-they-or-won’t-they story isn’t exactly surprising, either. But the film also has some shockingly funny moments (especially where Keanu Reeves is involved) that will keep viewers laughing as they fall in love with the characters and their antics.
With its eccentric characters and their lovably quirky charms, Always Be My Maybe is a fun new take on a familiar romantic comedy story. And that makes it worth catching on your next Netflix night in.
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