This movie has been on my radar for a while because of its connection to Taylor Swift (if you don’t know, I’m a huge fan). The backstory goes that the writer/director of the movie, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, was inspired to write the film after listening to Taylor Swift’s album “1989”, the song “Clean” in particular. After the movie came out, Taylor watched it and it then inspired her to write the song “Death By a Thousand Cuts” off her album “Lover”. All of this considered, how could I not like this movie?

Briefly, “Someone Great” follows Jenny (played by Gina Rodriguez) on a day of adventures with her friends in New York City, starting the morning after her boyfriend of 9 years breaks up with her. The reason for the breakup is ostensibly that she just accepted a job offer in San Francisco and he doesn’t want to move or do long distance. Jenny forces her two best friends to skip work and help keep her distracted from her sadness while they bounce around the city doing various activities. The present day plot is also intercut with flashbacks of Jenny’s relationship milestones with her ex, Nate. 

I had honestly been putting off watching this for a while because it’s about a breakup and I thought it would make me sad. And while a good amount of the movie is about that, it is really more about female friendship. Or at least that’s the part of the story that left a lasting impression on me. I loved the relationship between the group of friends and how they supported each other. They knew just when to coddle and when to give tough love. And while they had their own small tiffs, at the end of the day, they dropped everything and did anything for a friend in need. The characters were also funny and entertaining and they had a great dynamic as a trio. 

The Jenny and Nate storyline ultimately boils down to becoming your own person outside of a relationship. If you know me, you’ve heard this before, but this relates perfectly to my favorite metaphor about relationships (romantic or not). Relationships are like companies. If you get into one when you’re young, it’s like a startup: you build it from the ground up together and figure out what your identity looks like inside of it. If you start a relationship a little bit later on, it’s like a merger: you’re taking two fully formed entities with their own unique identities and trying to figure out how to make them work together. One isn’t better than the other but our relationships do affect our identities and vice versa. Jenny and Nate had been together for so long that neither one of them felt like a singular person outside of their relationship. Jenny needed to go to San Francisco for herself and Nate needed to stay in New York for both of them. Maybe in the future they’ll be able to reconcile and feel satisfied with who they are and who they could be together. Or maybe they got everything they needed from the relationship and will move on to find new partners to support the people they’re trying to grow into. Either way, the movie isn’t about finding love. It’s about finding yourself (with the support of your friends, obviously).

I was already primed to like this movie, for reasons previously stated, and I did. But I thought it was good, not great. There wasn’t anything specific I didn’t like, but it just wasn’t as amazing as I had hoped. I would still recommend it as a fun, easy watch. It’s a great summer in NYC movie and a great “one crazy day” movie (where the events of the film take place over one single day – with the exception of some flashbacks). Perfect for a girls night in. 

2023 Count: 6 seasons, 18 movies