Ava (Ciara Bravo) has already made up her mind about marriage when she calls her mother Judy (Marisa Tomei) in “You’re Dating a Narcissist,” happily informing her that she’s engaged, which is as much news to Judy as her fiancé’s name – Theo (Marco Pigossi). Judy is justified in being upset when as she tells her friend Diane (Sherry Cola), she’s had deli meat longer than her daughter has spent time with Theo, but then again Ava seems justified in holding back on the information when Judy is a best-selling relationship guru who may have helped thousands recognize that a problematic partner yet can weaponize such therapy-speak as an overbearing mother from whom Ava put an entire country’s worth of distance living in Los Angeles while her mom is back east.
One will know nearly as immediately as Ava does about Theo if “Golden Arm” and “The Fabulous Four” screenwriter Ann Marie Allison’s debut feature is for them or not, a broad comedy in every sense of the term that has a game cast going for broke. It’s strange to think enough time has passed since Tomei won an Oscar for “My Cousin Vinny” and proved herself every bit as capable a dramatic actress that a goofy romcom feels like a change of pace, but a rare lead comedic turn proves to be the primary draw when her Judy may irritate Ava with her reality checks, but elevates the production as a whole with her energy. Allison and co-writer Jenna Milly will occasionally have Judy shout directly into an iPhone cam as part of her self-help sermons that have won over plenty of fans, but you can also see how Ava may have become accustomed to tuning it out as white noise, particularly when she knows that it hasn’t yielded a much better love life for her than anyone else. Head over heels in love with Theo, Ava nonetheless sends a wedding invite to Judy and Diane for what’s planned to be a small, private affair at a cozy villa where Judy almost immediately upsets the front desk clerk with her overanalysis.
One of the funnier running jokes in “You’re Dating a Narcissist!” Is that this early exchange backfires spectacularly when Judy begins to notice how much smaller her accommodations are in compared to everyone else’s when visiting their rooms. At times, “You’re Dating a Narcissist” can feel a little quaint as well when it ends up at a single setting where the tension alone between Judy and Ava wouldn’t seem to be enough to sustain a 90-minute run time when the two clearly love each other too much to really butt heads and there’s a limited amount of other guests, though the inevitable appearance of Ava’s father and a less expected visit from Diane’s betrothed girlfriend produce some enjoyable bursts of havoc. These are champagne problems at best, yet the back-and-forth is fizzy enough to entertain and while nothing seems unresolvable – even a ruggedly handsome owner of the villa (José María Yazpik) is introduced so Judy clearly won’t be dancing by herself at the end – there is a nice poetry to a film where overthinking things can lead to trouble and Allison delivers breezy pleasures.
“You’re Dating a Narcissist” does not yet have U.S. distribution.