Title – Significant Other (2022) 

Directors – Dan Berk & Robert Olsen (Body) 

Cast – Maika Monroe, Jake Lacy

Plot – On a backpacking trip in the American Pacific Northwest, couple Ruth (Monroe) and Harry’s (Lacy) quiet trip in the wilderness is interrupted by a series of unexpected events that will test their relationship like never before.  

“Ready to tell us what happened to you?”

Review by Eddie on 07/06/2023

There’s no one that could accuse Paramount+ original movie Significant Other of not being an ambitious undertaking with co-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen ensuring that their small but high-reaching genre mash up is a film that tries its best to offer up something unexpected and not seen before but sadly despite some solid early groundwork and some great ideas, Other goes off the rails in its latter stages, creating an interesting but ultimately frustrating movie going experience. 

Best viewed with as little foresight into its happenings as possible, Other may seem like a familiar couples trip gone wrong horror/mystery but despite the fact viewers may suspect they know where things are going or what is in store for our troubled couple Ruth and Harry on their eventful hike through the Pacific Northwest forests, Berk and Olsen ensure that there are numerous occasions where their film will surprise and subvert expectations, sometimes for the good of the film and other times for the downfall of it. 

It’s hard to talk specifics of where things really begin to unravel for this moody affair without giving away key plot points that viewers will want to experience firsthand but after a solid start that encourages interest and theorising earlier on with Maika Monroe’s complicated Ruth and Jake Lacy’s energetic and excitable Harry experiencing the joys, wonders and possible hidden threats of their natural surrounds, Other starts taking narrative shortcuts, loses sight of character actions and tries to dip its toes into far too many plot developments that even though it has a lot of wonderful ideas/moments, you can’t help but feel audiences will be left with more cringe induced pondering/laughter rather than engrossing shock/awe.

You can’t fault Monroe and Lacy’s commitment to the cause, the two actors go all in here and try their best even when the material they are working with takes massive leaps of faith and diversions while Matt Mitchell’s fluid cinematography and Oliver Coates moody score do their best to maintain a high level of workmanship in Other’s delivery making it a more polished production than one might usually expect from such a streaming release. 

Had the stars aligned and Berk and Olsen managed to keep their ride on course throughout its many varied pathways and concepts, Other would have likely been one of the great unexpected joys of 2022’s feature film calendar and a possible future cult favourite but on final product here you’re left with only snippets of what might have been. 

Final Say – 

It’s never boring and at time threatens to become something quite special but despite its unpredictability, Significant Other can’t join all the dots on its way to an increasingly hard to stay on board with plot. 

2 1/2 cliff side proposals out of 5