Being in love is a wonderful experience, but maintaining it is another matter entirely, which is something that the protagonists of We Used to Know Each Other have to learn for themselves. A very simple independent comedy directed by Robert G. Putka, who wrote the screenplay in conjunction with Hugo de Sousa, who also happens to star in the film, it tells the story of a couple who have developed their relationship from afar, with one of them being a Portuguese native and the other residing in the United States – and after an effort to remove the distance and become an active part in one another’s daily life, they begin to realize that there is a lot more to the unconditional love they had previously seen as infallible. A fascinating film that is both intimate and complex in many ways, We Used to Know Each Other is a peculiar document of the changes that occur when two people realize that they are not truly meant for each other, an experience that can be daunting for any couple, especially one that is at the stage of actually discussing plans to marry, indicating their belief that they should be together for the rest of their lives. Combining irreverent comedy with a genuinely hard-hitting depiction of a relationship in turmoil, the director carefully weaves together several moments drawn from a place of genuine curiosity, which leads to quite an enigmatic film that may not always be perfect in its vision, but has enough ambition to at least pique our curiosity.

At the most fundamental level, We Used to Know Each Other is a film about a relationship undergoing a lot of changes. The central premise focuses on how a couple decide that they are not handling their long-distance relationship well, and in the process of trying to be more present in each other’s lives, they discover that there are enormous disparities that make them question whether or not they are meant for one another. This is a very interesting approach to a common subject, and while it can sometimes falter in terms of how it explores certain aspects of the central relationship, it offers some meaningful insights. We watch as the conversations shift from planning their future wedding to actually trying to decode if the person they have pledged to spend their life with is real, or simply the product of an idealistic image caused by brief internet conversations and vague memories from the past. It’s not a scandalous deconstruction of the perils of dating through social media or online relationships (since the couple have only been geographically separated for a short while), but rather an investigation into how a relationship can fall apart after sudden changes. We may think we know our partner, but time brings change, and we may not always like the person across from us after they have truly opened up to us. In the case of We Used to Know Each Other, this is heightened for the sake of comedic impact or dramatic effect (depending on the specific scene we are looking at), but it ultimately becomes an exercise in trying to understand how our perception can change over time, and how difficult it can be to masquerade as still being in love when that original spark has been extinguished.

However, despite being quite promising in terms of its conception and how it handles a lot of its ideas, We Used to Know Each Other is not a perfect film, and there comes a point where it runs out of the momentum provided by its very promising premise, and it begins to fall apart. The film has a strong start, but it ultimately struggles to know exactly where it wants to go, which becomes something of a problem when it comes to resolving the issues stirred by the central conflict. There are ideas embedded in this film that don’t quite go anywhere – the queer elements of the story in particular border on being troubling, since it is almost use as a punchline at first, and then devolves into the source of betrayal (even if no one involved had any bad intentions, the way queer desire is explored is just slightly misguided), and it never quite feels as natural as the rest of the film, which is a lot more straightforward. It seems like most of the story is designed to be a slice-of-life comedy, before taking a hard turn and becoming an overwrought psychological drama that focuses on melodramatic emotions, and unfortunately I don’t think Putka is experienced enough as a director to be able to handle such a jagged change in tone, which is ultimately why We Used to Know Each Other ends with such a fizzle, despite the very promising concept that informed most of its identity and made it a much better film in theory than execution, which is unfortunately something that happens occasionally with these small independent films that take an ambitious concept and squander a lot of its potential by not knowing how to follow through on its main ideas.

We Used to Know Each Other is not completely unworthy of our time, and at only 74 minutes there isn’t much space for it to overstay its welcome, so despite some notable flaws, I’d argue that it is a more positive experience than it is a flawed one, and there are certainly many merits that can be found throughout the film. It’s not the most complex film, but it does handle emotions well enough to the point where it doesn’t become too overwrought all that often. There are some solid performances found throughout the film – de Sousa is wonderful, but it’s Essa O’Shea who leaves the most substantial impression, with her performance as a truly broken young woman trying to navigate complex emotions as she suffers a crisis of identity, likely being quite resonant for several viewers. As a whole, the film delivers what it promises, albeit only to an extent – the use of humour is good but becomes strained after a while, and the emotions do tend to become quite intense in a way that doesn’t feel all that natural, which can cause quite a bit of strain for viewers seeking something slightly different and less invasive in terms of its use of sentimentality to make us feel a particular way. It isn’t particularly daring in its direction, and its limited resources are quite clear (although that is barely worth any criticism), but it does have a good sense of what it wants to say, it just struggles to make its intentions clear towards the end. It isn’t all that inventive, but We Used to Know Each Other is still a decent film, and at the very least introduces us to a group of very talented individuals on both sides of the camera who we will hopefully see emerging as major players in the future of the industry, since their work here is nothing if not entirely promising, and with a slightly more concise approach, this film could have been a major breakout for all of them.