Can You Keep a Secret? is a 2019 romantic comedy about a young woman who told her secrets to a stranger, only to find out he won’t be for long.
In a meeting in Chicago pushing her Panda brand of natural foods to a cruise line that caters to let’s say, not the most health conscious of people, Emma (Alexandra Daddario) fails spectacularly, literally soaking the client in carbonated organic goodness. She’s sure she’s gonna lose her job. On the plane ride back to NYC, a sympathetic flight attendant bumps her up to First Class where she ends up sitting next to good looking Jack (Tyler Hoechlin), she deciding to gulp down copious amounts of alcohol. That’s bad enough, but when a wave of pretty bad turbulence has her thinking she’s about to die, she lets fly a deluge of confessions, most of it deeply personal and potentially embarrassing. The good news is, the plane doesn’t crash. The bad news? Back at Panda, she learns that yup, Jack is the company’s co-founder, now in charge of restructuring the place when his business partner died. Turns out, he has some secrets of his own.
Let’s start with the effortlessly charming Daddario, who is primed for a blockbuster hit yet keeps landing parts in subpar flicks that don’t take advantage of her potential. That’s where we are again with director Elise Duran‘s debut feature film Can You Keep A Secret?, a mostly pleasant little rom-com that does everything it wants to do mostly because how convincing Daddario takes hold of the reigns and runs with it. And this is in a flick that jumps right off the cliff in its commitment to staying under all the tentpoles of the genre, ticking off the conventional 1,2,3’s of love and comedy at the movies with utter abandon. It ain’t all that challenging is what I’m saying.
Perhaps that’s okay. Who needs to be thinking when it comes to this kind of entertainment, the formula for producing movies like this so bound in concrete it’s probably impossible to give it a nudge and not have the foundations crack a little. That means the plot is paper thin, stuffed with whimsical supporting characters stepping on shoes from all corners of the story while Emma goes about doing everything no normal person would ever do. I mean, you really want to get into it, again, because Daddario smiles and you can’t help but want to follow, but this isn’t all that sustainable once it lays down its cards, forced to roll along the well-worn ruts.
With all the usual complications and crossed wires, Can You Keep A Secret? isn’t going to surprise you, and you’ll see where it’s going about three minutes in, but for what it is, there’s plenty here that will satisfy, the breezy story and reliable direction delivering in spades what the romcom gods demand. It’s sweet and good-natured, touched with just enough mystery and playfulness to earn some smiles, keeping this a comfortable pick for a softball movie experience.